Week 08: 'Gazing'

In Debra Merskins chapter 'Where Are the Clothes? The Pornographic Gaze in Mainstream American Fashion Advertising' (2006), there is a clear and logical sequence of arguments relating to the central question, can codes and conventions of pornography be found in mainstream fashion and advertising? Which, Merskin confirms to be true. She also talks about the different levels of pornography and the way in which sexual advertising and posing is so ‘commonplace’ now we’re almost desensitized to it. While reading this chapter I found myself thinking back to my VCE art elective and 2 of the artworks and artists I studied, these being shown below. There is a clear correlation between these two paintings, which were both created by men might I add, and advertising campaigns today featuring women. Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus (1510) created first depicts a sleeping Venus, Venus being the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In this depiction there is no eye contact suggesting she is completely unaware of the viewer and submissively lying there in what seems like a powerless and passive manner making her perfectly vulnerable and helpless in regards to the male gaze and abilities of men to do whatever they want to and with her. Merskin makes the same conclusion in regards to fashion campaigns of today explaining ‘the model is unaware of the viewers gaze, her eyes are usually closed, she faces away from the camera her body is open, her genitals are just barely concealed.’ (p. 210) which I found to be very interesting. She also touches on the notion of ‘while men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at.’ which furthermore suggests male control and dominance.
‘On the other hand Titians ‘Venus of Urbino’ (1538) portrays Venus and powerful and dominating making eye contact with the viewer as if to say, I’m aware you’re there and I’m waiting for you. In this time it was most definitely unacceptable and far from modest for a women to be reclining and unclothed in public. It’s useful to make note of the maids in the background searching for something to cover her up in and the dog lying on the bed, which was said to be a symbol of ‘unfaithfulness’ in the Renaissance art period. It was also unknown for women to have such power and control over men which, I determined could have been an unconscious rebellion of the time, a rebellion of what men wanted women to be like coming through in their artwork. This kind of advertising is apparent today in the ‘sex sells’ kind of advertising featuring women seducing the camera with their gaze and wearing little clothing. I think all of the above has great relevance to the reading this week as it shows the same ideas of gender coming through in today’s media therefore suggesting the same problems and restrictions experienced then are still evident in today’s society regardless of feminism and any other future ‘isms’ we try to use to overcome them.



'Venus of Urbino' Titian, 1538

'Sleeping Venus' Giorgione, 1510

Bibliography

Merskin, D., 2006, ‘Where Are the Clothes? The Pornographic Gaze in Mainstream American Fashion Advertising’ in Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing, ed. Reichert, T. & Lambiase, J., Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, Mahwah, pp. 199-217. http://ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/login?url=http://onlineres.swin.edu.au/522396.pdf

Kuhn, A. (1995). Lawless Seeing. In G. Dines & J. M. Humez (Eds.), Gender, race, and class in media(pp. 271-278). Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

'Sleeping Venus' Found on: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/v8oltWilmCcx7ondYmQ2VQ

'Venus of urbino' Found on: http://c41blog.wordpress.com/