Quote from John Berger, "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".
By this Berger means that women are forced to carry around an image of themselves in their heads as society judges them on their appearance. His theory is that art from the renaissance era depict women as being aware that they are being looked at by men.
Vanity
1485
The woman is looking at herself, which implies that it's ok for others to look at her. As she is not looking at us, the power is in our hands to look at her.
Birth of Venus
1863
The way the womans body is positioned is such that whilst we are free to look at her, she can't challenge our gaze as her own gaze is covered.
TitianVenus of Urbino
1538
Even though the woman has some sense of the power in the way her gaze interrupts our own, her facial expression and suggestive positioning of her hand are giving us permission to look at her.
Olympia
1863
Bergers arguement is that there weren't enough nudes painted like this, where the woman's gaze is more challenging in the positioning of the body is more protective.
Rosalind Coward
An essay on female identity in 1984 by Rosalind Coward suggests that the camera in the media is just an extension of the male gaze, empowered by its invisibility.
The Wonder Bra
1994
Studies showed that when this advert was used as a billboard traffic on the roads slowed down. It suggests that it's fashionable not care about being sexually objectified.
2007
This advertisement shows how male nudity it advertising generally provides a much more powerful gaze, supporting Cowards theory.
Griselda Pollock
Griselda Pollock's theory is that women are marginalised in art history because most of art history and the movements within it are run through the achievements and successes of males, and that modern art is slowly changing due to feminism.
Judith Slaying Holofernes
1612
There isn't much art that shows women in acts of power or showing physical strength. This painting shows this along with a fair bit of gore.
Film Stills
1979
Photography such as this which shows the woman choosing not to look at herself in the mirror takes away the implication that we can look at her. The portrait positioning of the woman takes the emphasis away from her body and makes it less sexual.
Eating a Banana
1990
The aggressive return of the womans gaze empowers the women in the photo doing something that could otherwise be made out to be sexually provocative.
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