“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.”
- John Berger, Ways of Seeing
This a simple statement that summarizes sexism at its core. Men are always looking at and judging women. Women are often the subject of the Male Gaze. As a result, women have to consider how they will be perceived by others.
Men are treated with a little bit more empathy and understanding. They are perceived as regular human beings who make mistakes. Women are criticized and overanalyzed for every choice they make. Trying to balance others’ perceptions of your choices as a woman vs how you truly feel is a timeless dilemma for women worldwide.
“Nakedness was created in the mind of the beholder.”
- John Berger, Ways of Seeing
When I learned the difference between naked vs nude in art history, it changed my perspective. In my drawing class last semester I had my first experience drawing from a live nude model. My excitement was hard to explain to friends who don’t understand why artists do this. I see these models as nude figures but to the outside person, it sounds like naked modeling.
“Listen to the voices of wounded grown children raised in patriarchal homes and you will hear different versions with the same underlying theme, the use of violence to reinforce our indoctrination and acceptance of patriarchy.”
- Bell Hooks, Understanding Patriarchy
She puts this very bluntly after telling her personal experience of patriarchal violence. This quote is very heavy. I’m grateful I never experienced this in my childhood because hard to even read about.
“That all attempts to repress our/black peoples’ right to gaze has produced in us an overwhelming longing to look, a rebellious desire, and oppositional gaze.”
- Bell Hooks, The Oppositional Gaze
This description is very vivid. When I read this quote I felt the longing and desire that fuels an oppositional gaze. The oppositional gaze is a result of repression and the goal is to reclaim power.
What is the Male Gaze?
The Male Gaze is the male presence and the power he exercises on others.
What is the Female Gaze?
The Female Gaze is the woman’s presence, which expresses her own attitude toward herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her.
What is Oppositional Gaze?
The Oppositional Gaze is an act of defiance. It’s confrontational and challenges authority. There is power in a gaze. Authority figures feel threatened when the people they dominate gaze back at them, instead of looking away. It’s like talking back to your parents but with your eyes.
“‘It doesn’t have to be the so-called ‘major world’ of history, it can be instead the world around you, which is its own political landscape.’”
-Donatien Grau, Female Gaze: Art that Looks at What Women See by Nina Siegal, 2021
In art history, we’re used to viewing the world through a specific lens but the artists in the Met exhibition mentioned are creating an “alternative world” by simply bringing their voices to the table.
“Thomas’s jazzy photomontages of women’s limbs and facial features can be construed as commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture.”
-Carey Dunne, The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas, 2016
I enjoyed this explanation of Mickalene Thomas’ collage pieces. I liked the way she assembled the collages but I didn’t realize that this was her intention. She’s speaking to what many women feel about body image and representation in culture.
“Mendieta ‘used fear well, transmuting a profound sense of psychological and cultural displacement into an experience of merging with the natural world and its history through art.’”
-Holland Cotter, Ana Mendieta: Artist Who Pushed Boundaries by Monica Castillo, 2018
Ana Mendieta is really incredible. She translated her feelings very well and displayed them in her pieces. Her work is very profound and striking. Personally, she's left a lasting impression. Her life story and her art are pretty unforgettable.
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| Denise Abadies, I Exist, 2023 |
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| Mickalene Thomas, Din, une tres belle negresse #2, 2012 |
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