Wednesday 20 April 2011

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/

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Week 07: Watching

The idea of ultimate control and surveillance at all times has a certain eeriness and oppressive manner to it. Michel Foucault (1977) encourages the reader to question the roles of observer and the participant. This suggests power and control are a result of which of the two positions you are in. He also covers the idea of surveillance in general and the way structures such as the Panopticon which contains ‘so many cages, so many small theatres, in which actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible.’ (p. 200). The ‘actor’ in this case being a prisoner. The notion of ‘he is seen but does not see’ prompted me to think of my work environment.
Where I work the boss and owner of the store has a camera system set up in store, which has 4 cameras covering the entire area of the store. This system is hooked up to his computer at home meaning that at any time he could potentially be watching us from home. The fact we don’t know when he is or isn’t watching us prevents us from doing things we shouldn’t e.g. checking our phones or standing around (most of the time) because of the confidentiality of the observer. Although he probably isn’t watching there have been instances where he has caught people out meaning, we just assume he’s watching ALL the time and are reluctant to take risks.
‘The Panopticon, on the other hand, must be understood as a generalisable model of functioning, a way of defining power relations in terms of everyday life of men.’ (p. 205) When applying it to my work environment it is clear how the control and mastery of the survellience of his workers is what defines the power relationships between us and him.
It says a lot about the power of paranoia and it’s ability to motivate ones actions and suggests that maybe the greatest disciplinary tool comes in the form of the confidential and unknown.


Bibliography
Foucault, M., 1977, ‘Panopticism’ in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, translated by Alan Sheridan, Penguin,
London, pp 195-228.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Week 06: Speaking and listening


This weeks reading by Z Papacharissi (2002) touches on the idea of the public sphere as well as the potential advantages and disadvantages of us making the transition from face to face communication to the Internet, as our new medium for public opinion and rational debate.
‘The term ‘public’ connotes ideas of citizenship, commonality and things not private, but accessible and observable by all.’ (et al page 10) When referring to the Internets use for the ‘public’ its interesting to note that it is not entirely compliant with these terms. The Internet does in fact have ways of alienating particular groups through passwords and lock out systems. This demolishes the idea of citizenship, commonality and ‘accessible and observable by all’ as with different groups being excluded not everyone is on a level playing field. The fact that many people in the world also fall short of access to the Internet let alone a computer also adds to this sense of discontent with such methods. As well as this, the ability for users to be anonymous online removes incentive for being civil and loyal to each other and invites sinister notions of secrecy and deception being endorsed in an area already overpowered by conflicting parties trying all matter of tricks to get their opinions permanently approved. I feel the suggestion of the Internet being an advance in the public sphere to be a negative step and think in this case the saying ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’, is suiting.


Bibliography
Papacharissi, Z., 2002, The virtual sphere: The internet as a public sphere, New Media and Society, Vol 4, No. 1, pp. 9-27