"According to usage and commercialism which are at last being questioned but by no means have been overcome - Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at"
(Berger 1972)
This very accurate quote by John Berger is one of the first of its kind which started to question how women are portrayed in the arts and media, and this lecture was to determine what was a passive photo/painting to one which challenges the 'Gaze' of the human nature.
John Berger started by looking at paintings to explore his statement (Above). The first painting studied was Hanz Memling's 'Vanity' :
John goes on to explain that the use of a mirror in the painting represents a false permission to look at the subjects body, in other words he says "you put a mirror in her hand so YOU could look at her" this is because the mirror represents vanity, and so if the subject is being vain then its okay to look at her nude. also notice that the subject isnt looking back at the viewer, this is another tool that gives the viewer permission to view her nude, it was said that Gaze means 'our permission to look is given when the model doesnt look back'. this is an example of a passive piece.
To present an example of a piece where the 'Gaze' is challenged we must compare two very similar pieces (one being passive to show the comparison).
Firstly we will see the passive piece, Titan's Venus of Urbino (1538)
Although she is looking at the camera her body is very relaxed, a soft expression, and a laid back pose.
Compare this to Manet's 'Olympia' (1863)
Although it is a very similar to Titan's work, there are a few subtle differences that changed it from a passive painting to one that challenged the 'Gaze'. The facial expression is more stern and you can tell she is thinking 'why are you looking at me?' but also the hand resting on the leg is very much more of a 'covering of her genitalia' rather than just part of the pose.
The world was very aware of the way women were represented in the arts and media after the awareness was raised by John Berger and many others like him, another example being a group called the 'Gorilla Girls' who campaigned to raise awareness, one of their quotes is:
"5% of artists are female but 85% of the nudes are female"
So now we are aware of determining a passive piece of work and a challenger to the gaze we can start contextualizing this thoery.
we will compare two animations, one being passive and one being a challenger.
the first is the passive one.
in the animation 'Who Killed Roger Rabbit' the main female animated character is a prime example of how women are represented in media, a very exaggerated figure with an attitude to that of a flirty sexualised female.
the character knows that she is being watched and 'Gazed' at but just accepts it, at around the time of this film there was an ethos that many women did stick to, which was that it was unfashionable to not want to be described as a sexual icon/object.
Next we move onto Wendoline from 'Wallace and Gromit'
in this animation, Wendoline is the complete opposite to how most female characters in animations, she doesn't necessarily challenge the gaze because she is not represented in that way, but the fact she is a love interest in the film shows a different representation of how women act than most animations.
But sadly to say Coward.R is very true in what she says, that men are the active characters in the media and females are the passive ones who don't add the the progression of the story.
I will continue to spot these aspects of how women are being represented in animation/the media to expand my knowledge of the concerns of the modern media. and to raise awareness of other animators of this situation.
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