Task 5 - The Gaze

‘according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’ (Berger 1972, 45, 47)

The image above is named 'Vanity', and is by the artist Hans Memling. This painting is perhaps one of the better representations of Berger's quote - it is obvious that this image is intended primarily for the heterosexual male's viewing pleasure. There is a fair amount more than meets the eye to an image such as this, though. Upon closer inspection, it becomes obvious that the woman is not looking back towards the male viewer, instead she is looking at herself in the mirror. In this sense, it is possible to argue that she is ensuring that she, at that point in time, is happy with herself being gazed upon by a male audience. This in turn seems to establish an asymmetric power relationship between males and females; it suggests that the female is in the unfortunate position of having to watch out for herself to make sure she is desirable to the male audience. Maybe. Invariably, it is quite easy to highlight this kind of thing as being sexist to a certain extent, when going by Berger's statement. The idea of her looking into the mirror suggests that she has willingly allowed the male to gaze upon her, in a slightly submissive way.

Carrying this idea forward, we can still see the same sort of situations occurring in today's society, particularly with regards to the advertising industry. It portrays an image of a woman that would perhaps seem ideal in many ways to the male audience; it is suggestive that buying the fragrance will obtain a woman similar to the one displayed in the image - one who is willing to reveal herself in explicit ways, allowing the male to have his way with her, as such. This is of course a completely unrealistic situation, as there are not many women who would openly allow a male to gaze upon her on the basis of how he smells. I find it interesting how they have manipulated the image so her eyes are not visible; this only serves to confirm an un-equal power relationship between males and females; it allows males to gaze upon her without any sort of retaliation or defence. Very idealistic. Sex sells, after all, very particularly to males. Her open mouth suggests that she is also very much enjoying the attention received.