Distorted Bodies & Misrepresentation in Fashion Magazines

I remember quite vividly the time I bought my first Vogue as a young girl. It was October and the year was 2008. Even though this may seem like quite a while ago, the images I encountered while entering a new, and distorted, world in which bodies seemed so disintegrated and out of touch became a mystery to me. As I could not grasp the reality of these altered bodies, I came to the realisation that the way female bodies are represented just could not be real.

Years have gone by, but the images fashion magazines put out are far from tangible. As a consequence, disproportioned body parts and the excessively manipulated physique and figure has become the norm. Why is that? As Pollock points out, ‘the body has come to signify “sale”’ (138): it has been commodified and objectified.

         

                                                                                                            

However, what is left of a woman’s femininity when other subjectivities are imposed on her, is a mere illusion : an illusion purposefully created, and manipulated, so that others attempt to live up to this norm as well. According to Berger, this is ‘a sign of submission to the owner’s feelings, or demands’ (52). It this case, ‘the owner’ relates to the owner of the fashion magazine or clothing store.

However, the display of femininity seen in fashion magazine is actually a ‘masquerade’ (Doane 225), it is over the top and exaggerated. In fact, the representation is carefully crafted in accordance with what a woman decides to demonstrate as being a woman’s body (225). It is exactly this idea that should be highlighted most of all: if a woman has the power, i.e. the agency, to decide to reproduce what is considered to be feminine, does she then not have the power to produce what she finds to be feminine? In line with this believe, the tool is there to prevent young girls from having to deal with unrealistic expectations.

Stranger by the Lake

Mulvey writes, in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” about how the gaze is structured is Hollywood films, specifically how we are encouraged to look at women, and how there occurs a kind of ‘masculinization’ of (all of) our spectatorship. She acknowledges that there exists a branch of filmmaking (a vast and varied branch!) which challenges the viewer to look in a different way. She states that this “alternative cinema provides a space for a cinema to be born which is radical in both a political and an aesthetic sense and challenges the mainstream assumptions of the mainstream film” (834). Here I will explore one such film which challenges, rather than reinforces, the norms and assumptions which inform how we look (and how we are encouraged to look).

The 2013 French film Stranger by the Lake (L'inconnu du lac), directed by Alain Guiraudie, is described as follows on IMDb: “A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this but wants to live out his passion anyway.” I will not be paying much attention to the plot of the movie - how it “joins sex and death, pleasure and guilt, pleasure and pain” (Brody), but rather will focus on how it works to structure the gaze of the audience.

Lit up by the lambent sunshine of southern France deep in the summertime, the film is populated solely by men; not a single woman is seen. Already this problematizes some of the ideas laid out by Mulvey in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema;” what happens when there are no women to be looked at? (Of course, as I stated above, Mulvey was writing specifically about a particular ‘genre’ of film). The question now is not about how we are encouraged to look at women; it is about how we are encouraged to look at men. 

Stranger by the Lake contains multiple long, lingering shots of naked men lounging about on the lakeside beach, and in the luxuriantly vegetated hills rising up beyond it. The audience watches as men stroll about, eyeing each other up - our gaze (that is, the audience’s) is filtered through the sexualized gaze of the cruisers themselves. Their sexuality is the first thing we see when we see the men, they are equal to their sexuality (and its complexity).

Where in mainstream film the “burden of sexual objectification” is rarely placed on the male figure [who] cannot bear [it]” (Mulvey 838), in Guiraudie’s film men are often presented as sexual objects, willingly on display. If “man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like” (838) then this film is sure to provoke feelings of discomfort and unease in its (straight male) viewers. Dryer states that “the penis can never live up to the mystique implied by the phallus” (71) and for this reason phallic symbols are usually inserted into images of naked men to compensate. Many of the men we see in Stranger by the Lake are not accompanied by any such symbols; they appear lying about in the grass or on the beach. In the patriarchal tradition women are often located ‘closer to nature’ - taking direction from desire, passion overriding ‘rationality’ - in this film this idea is inverted, the men appear ‘at home in nature.’  

References: (excluding readings from the syllabus)

Brody, Richard. "Silence Equals Death in 'Stranger by the Lake.'" The New Yorker, 2013. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/silence-equals-death-in-stranger-by-the-lake.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2852458/

The New Gaze in Hip Hop

The New Gaze in Hip Hop

“A woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste – indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence.” (Berger, 46)

According to Berger, woman’s presence in art is always a matter of women themselves but not so much their relation to the outside world. Therefore, the quote suggests that woman’s presence is about what can be done to her but not by her. This leads Berger to state that women constantly survey themselves while being surveyed by others which turns them into an “object of vision: a sight” (46-47). However, is Berger’s analysis of mainly European art masterpieces still relevant in today’s pop culture?

Cardi B

Recently, I have been especially interested in female rappers as I think they are a great source of women empowerment. Not only they embrace their sexuality and body but also, they shift the stereotypes of typically male-dominated hip-hop scene. One of the emerging artists that risen to the top is Cardi B, a former stripper from the Bronx, who is now at the top of US charts in combination with two Grammy nominations. Her past is often thrown at her and used to define her, which places Cardi B into a position of being a voyeuristic spectacle. However, she doesn’t care – she is proud of her present because that is what matters now. In her texts, she depicts men as weak, soft, and easily manipulated (MacPherson 2017). This can be linked to Griselda Pollock’s essay What’s Wrong with Images of Women as there she describes how the use of male/female reversals can be useful in denaturalizing the meanings of masculinity and femininity (137-138). Cardi B especially blurs the notion of sexual difference as she as an artist creates “an alternative imagery outside existing ideological forms” (142).

For instance, in her video clip, Bodak Yellow the opening scene in the desert creates an Orientalist vibe - Cardi B in abaya dress sits on a camel and is accompanied by seven guards who protect her in the desert. She is always in the center of the composition of the frame and is portrayed with objects of power as for instance - a cheetah, diamonds, and expensive cars. Even though Berger might interpret her presence in this video as a definition of what can or cannot be done to her, I have to disagree. I think her presence here can be also taken from a different perspective because she already reversed the typical roles of hip-hop music video where we would probably imagine a male rapper surrounded by a harem of women in this type of Orientalist scenario. By doing that, Cardi B is not only conscious of her being observed but she works within this reality and thanks to the already-mentioned reversals she is able to act outside the domain of mere video clip. We as voyeurs become shocked by this reversal and we either accept it or deny it which also connects to the statistics of her fandom which from 95% consists of females (MacPherson 2017). Therefore, we might see a positive shift in popular culture where different strategies can be adopted by women artists in order to avoid the typical representation of women as passive objects of gaze and desire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEGccV-NOm8

Tatarka

Another example where women empowerment might function as an active strategy in hip-hop culture is Tatarka’s work. Tatarka is from Tatarstan and she became particularly popular for her Tatar or English tracks Altyn and Pussy Power. Her latest track Pussy Power was rapped in English and was said to be a feminist project which had an international interest (The Calvert Journal 2017). The video shows Tatarka with a group of women in 90s suits which according to her were meant to represent power and feminism (The Clavert Journal 2017). The video clip does not show any men which is very rare in the music industry. Furthermore, all the women in the video are always standing or moving in a masculine and powerful way – the women face us up front. By the end of the video, it almost seems arrogant and intimidating but when we again do the male/female reversal, it suddenly alarms us how normal the video would be if only men were there and acting in the same way. It is this confusion that some work was actually done for the female observer that makes us realize how the male point of view is so naturalized in our society. To conclude, I have to say that there are certainly many examples where Berger’s insights are still applicable, however, via this blog entry I have tried to outline examples that actually show the opposite and might lead to a more positive view of the future that can possibly depict women in a non-stereotypical and active manner which might alter the way how they are seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRt7f5COJkM&list=RDMMDRt7f5COJkM

Works Cited

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/01/how-cardi-b-went-from-stripper-to-star

https://www.calvertjournal.com/news/show/8997/tatar-rap-star-premieres-video-for-first-song-in-english

https://genius.com/Cardi-b-bodak-yellow-lyrics

http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.nl/2011/05/john-berger-ways-of-seeing-summary-and.html

John Berger, Ways of Seeing

Griselda Pollock, “What’s Wrong with ‘Images of Women’?’

Hair in women's shaving advertisements

In Ways of Seeing Berger argues that in European nude paintings women are generally painted without body hair in order to appeal to the man's sexuality: "Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion. The woman's sexual passion needs to be minimized so that the spectator may feel that he has the monopoly of such passion" (55).

Similarly, in contemporary advertisements for shaving products women are shown shaving their legs or armpits that aren't even hairy to begin with (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5wzBElY0k0; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsyP9UucYhM). This illustrates that women in the 21st century are still not depicted with body hair. Even if the sole purpose of the advertisement is to sell a product that would get rid of the hair it is apparently too inappropriate or grotesque to see these women actually shave their hairy legs. Wouldn't an advertisement that demonstrate that the product can in fact do what it promises be more convincing?

This raises the question whether it is still the case that hair is associated with sexual power or passion and therefore has to be suppressed, or minimised, in women, as Berger suggests, or that women's body hair has become something that doesn't fit in with the beauty ideal and therefore cannot be appear on television. Either way, the ads emphasise that there is a difference in the acceptability of hair in men and women. This advertisement for men's shaving products shows the contrast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T1CaF4TsWE. Firstly, in this advertisements we can actually see the hair before it gets removed by the product in question. Secondly, basically all advertisements for men appear to be concerned with facial hair, not body hair. This suggests that body hair isn't even a issue with men, whereas with women it is. It  also clearly shows a contrast between the beauty standards for men and women.

The depiction of female characters in anime

Short discussion that covers some of the characters from the Seven Deadly Sins (2014) and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009)

 I’ve been in an anime mood lately, and had a hard time thinking about examples of the gaze in contemporary (American) movies and series. I will therefore be focusing on the gaze in Japanese anime. Anime is an incredibly broad genre of animated series and movies in Japan. A couple of genres are sports, sci-fi, history, fantasy, slice of life, shoujo and shounen. I have only seen the tip of the iceberg, and for that reason I don’t feel like I can cover the whole genre that is anime, or make statements that are true for every genre in anime. 

I’ve been watching anime since I was little and something that has been bothering me for a while now is the way some female characters are presented. The shy, submissive, reserved women with high voices* who appear weak and sometimes hyper-feminine. They usually stand at the side line while the men fight, struggle, and win. I feel like this is such a clear reflection of how men want women to be, the male gaze plays an incredible role in anime and it reminds me of Mulvey: “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic subject for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (838) I usually stop halfway the series when such characters are presented. However is it sometimes the case that there is a development, and the woman actually turns out to have a special ability (Elizabeth in Seven Deadly Sins, 2014). But in the end, nothing is done about her appearance, attitude, or voice, and in the spectator’s eyes she stays an object.  

Of course, I am overgeneralising, I have seen strong female characters in anime as well. For example Olivier Armstrong and Izumi Curtis in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009). These women are mentally and physically strong, impressive and scary (for some of the male characters). However is Olivier a major general in the army, and has the nickname “Ice Queen” due to her harsh personality but beautiful appearance. She has no children or husband nor does she have the wish to have them. In her case, she abandoned the things that bound her to being a “traditional woman” (especially in Japanese terms)**, to gain strength and respect. She has a low voice, and many people are scared of her. All these things that make her character a strong woman, are actually all because she behaves more “like a man”. Izumi is partly the same story, a low voice, a strong appearance of a woman, mentally and physically a beast. But she does have a very large loving husband, that brings out her “feminine” side. But even though these women are not as easy to objectify by the spectator as Elizabeth, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. 

I am all for strong female characters, not just in anime, in real life series/movies as well. However the way they are created, the masculine (personality) traits they posses mixed with a very feminine body, is perhaps still problematic. But maybe I am still looking too much through a masculine/feminine pair of glasses, and shouldn't try to label them. Then again, I have to to analyse it in the way the characters are made and presented by the artist. In conclusion, there is a lot to say about this topic, I’ve only grasped a small part of it without any further deeper analysis of for example the history behind depicting women in anime in certain ways.

*The pitch of a voice says a lot about a characters personality. Perhaps more in Japanese culture than in Western culture. That’s why in the case of women, if they have a low voice, it really means they are stronger or more independent, more confident. If they have a high voice it makes them really “girly”. Young, innocent, naive. 

**A short background on equality and ideologies in Japan. Considering Japan as quite a modern and “Western” country, the (lack of) gender equality in society and culture is sometimes hard to swallow. For example, the expectations that many men still have of women considering family life is that the woman quits her job as soon as she gets pregnant and sometimes even as soon as she gets married. She then becomes full-time housewife to take care of her husband and kids. Of course shifts are taking place and women and some men start to reject this ideology. However do employment markets and other economical, political and social forces make it hard for things to change. 

2017 ESPN Body Issue: Defying the male spectator?

In his essay ‘Ways of seeing’, Berger asks why the social presence of the genders differs so much. He focuses on the nude genre in European art tradition and conclude that the representation of women as passive objects is to please the ‘ideal’ spectator who is presumed to be male.                                                                                                                                   

  Dyer, also looks at the bodies of male that have been placed on display. Unlike female bodies, he notes that this objectification is never truly realised. Different methods are applied to subvert the violence caused by placing the male body on display and male dominance is re-established. 

The  2017 ESPN body issue offers us the site to examine Berger’s and Dyer’s assertions as ‘nakedness/nudity’ is expressed through female and male athletes. The editorial consists of 16 sets photo-shoot, but 2 photos have been chosen to be showcase the extreme differences in women's representation.

 “To be naked is to be oneself and to be nude is to be seen by other and yet not recognised for oneself”, writes Berger. After much criticism of the previous editions, the 2017 editorial is much different. Most of the pictures falls into the first category described in Berger’s quote. Both female and male athletes are positioned within the elements of their respective sports: on the courts or on ice. Time and movements are captured by the lens. In addition, most athletes do not meet the viewer’s gaze. As a result, the viewer is denied ownership and the powerful position associated with looking. Rather, the viewer is guided in following the action taking place in the picture and to witness the incredible capability of the body. Nevertheless, ESPN still falls in traditional trap where the muscles of the male athletes are emphasised, whilst softness emanates from the female athletes.                                             

 Two pictures representing women quickly stand out where one picture not only departs from the traditional form of women’s images, it also includes what Dyer termed phallus symbols. In this picture, MMA athlete Michelle Waterson is photographed with a sword, with a daring glint in her eyes. The sword, a symbol of power which is traditionally photographed with men as a way of enhancing their masculinity. But in this case, Michelle possessing this ‘paternal power’ disrupts our ideas about women. The ‘ideal’ male spectator, which is certainly in the case of ESPN audience, is denied the chance to objectify her, to own her. She is not empowered but rather empowered. She is not an appetite to feast on and her body positioned as if she is ready for combat, might materialise at any attempt to feast on her. In this photograph, the viewer see Michelle as the fighter that she is. She is asserting her own identity, rather than the viewer projecting their ideas and values unto her body. She is naked        

   Unfortunately, ESPN does offer a different female athlete as an appetite. In this photograph featuring Caroline Wozniacki, the tennis player is lying on the court, flirting with the ‘ideal’ spectator. Although there are pictures of her in motion and her muscles defined, it exemplifies Pollock’s notion of reading “meanings signified by women in images in reference, for instance to man in images”. She is the only athlete in a passive position, inviting the viewer. Her image reeks of the re-production of the blond bombshell. She is stripped of her virility, present in her other photographs and reduced to an appetite. She has become a nude.

This is a continuum which ESPN adopt for the women athletes. On the one hand it focuses on their strength as athletes to objectifying them. In between these extremes, they manipulate and negotiate with female and masculine attributes. In the end they try to appease both the critiques and  the ‘ideal’ spectator. This appeasement of the male spectator means that women may be allowed to venture here and there, but they will always be fixed and split in that confined space Berger noticed, to please the male surveyor.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/body/espn-body-issue-2017#!athletes_michellewaterson

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/body/espn-body-issue-2017#!athletes_carolinewozniacki

The unforgiving eye of a webcam

Picture this: it's a Monday night, you're sitting in front of your laptop eating ramen noodles. Perhaps you're watching a Youtube video, or simply mindlessly scrolling through your Facebook feed. A scene way too familiar, right? At that moment, you are comfortable, at ease - yourself. You know you are alone with a screen and nobody behind it. Who and what's stopping you from chewing with your mouth open? From picking your nose? From getting undressed? Nobody. You are, truly, alone with yourself. Or so you think. Let's add one disturbing detail to this familiar story: someone's watching. And it's right in front of you.

In 2014, news broke that a website had been illegally streaming 73.000 webcams and private security cameras from all over the globe. The locations were seemingly chosen at random, ranging from schools' security cameras to changing rooms in various shops. Many of the streams were directly connected to laptops’ webcams, prompting a mass hysteria and concerns for privacy.
In era truly dominated by technology, any tech gadget we add to our repertoire is simply one more piece of privacy we are willing to give away. But just how much privacy?Think, for instance, of how many people cover their laptop webcam with a sticker, despite using their phone camera every day, and passing through dozens of security camera footages. This paradox speaks volumes on our collective underlying fear of technology masked by our dependence and obsession with it. While the idea of someone hacking and watching through cameras is certainly eery, it must have happened for a reason. There’s no supply without demand, and the demand was, and is, certainly there. Profiting off this type of voyeurism is surely unethical, but who was watching, then? And why? 

Since the 2014 case, many others have occurred and still do to this day. Take Hackforums - a forum with 23 million total posts that overtly discusses how to hack into women’s laptops and take over their webcams. They exclusively target women, and call them “slaves”; it is the very fact that they are unaware of being watched that grants these hackers a sense of power, of domination, of monopoly. For instance, this is how one hacker talks about “slaves”: “Poor women think they are alone in their private homes...but they have no idea they are our laughing stock”. In fact, they often exchange pictures or footage of their ‘slaves’ on the public forums, and some of these include naked pictures taken by the hackers themselves, or footage of these women masturbating. Afterall, who could imagine someone’s watching? Some of these hackers (although only a small percentage) blackmail their victims with these pictures in exchange for money, sex, or more naked picturesHowever, the underlying reason for these hackers' "hobby" is the power-trip they obtain by having dominance over thesse defenceless women - like Bergerr's Ways of Seeing discusses, male spectators long for a feeling of monopoly over the female oject of gaze, over their passions, over their powers (Berger, 81).

The fear of someone watching through your webcam is amplified when you’re a woman. Why? Because you know that someone posting your naked pictures online for everyone to see will leave you deprived of your dignity, will put you to shame, will make you feel insubordinate and dominated once again - only this time by an invisible enemy. Your consent is not taken into account because you are no more than a 'slave', an unknowing object of gaze. The truth is, a webcam’s eye is ever present and unforgiving.

Next time you’re eating noodles in front of your laptop, I encourage you to look straight into your webcam - I can assure you, it will start to feel more and more like you're looking into someone else’s gaze. And - who knows - maybe you will be.