Nakedness vs. the nude : erasing the male gaze by re-appropriating the female body as a female contemporary artist
Mitiku, Alexandra (2018)
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018112918986
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018112918986
Tiivistelmä
The male gaze within the visual culture is omnipresent. Consequently, this dominating perspective trains the audience how to perceive images of women. Their narratives are confiscated and are replaced by ones that are exclusively of and for the viewer. In this scenario, the female body is exclusively normative and is not recognized as an own iden-tity. Meanwhile, the trans woman is completely exiled from being a representative of the female body; she is rendered invisible. Both female bodies are lessened in the patriarchal image of woman; this disembodiment is considered a designed method of oppression.
The essay begins with a brief background of the female body as seen through the male gaze. Here, two oppressive misrepresentations are established: the diminished normative woman (sexual objectification) and the invisible trans woman (mis-gendered as man). Similarly, the viewer is divided into two categories: the active and the passive viewer.
The central aim is to determine the need to materialize first-hand translations of visceral experience to reform the female body in the visual culture. This is done by examining works by female artists that feature the revalued female body. Amongst the artworks of this research, the artistic part of my thesis, ‘WHO/WHAT’ and ‘If these walls could talk’, are discussed in detail.
It also outlines how counter imagery is created when the female body is reclaimed and presented by female artists. Moreover, affirming their own gaze. One recurring method of producing counter imagery is the re-appropriation of attributes that had previously been used as methods of oppression. Additionally, this research analyses how the works invoke subjectivity in the way the viewer perceives the female body. References from researchers in the field of visual culture, gender studies, feminist art, perception and philosophy, are integrated to support the findings.
The main research questions that guide this thesis include: What are the methods used by female artists to empower their bodies? How has this affected visual culture? What do their works invoke in the viewer? How do their works undermine the hegemony of the male gaze and erase it from the female body? Conclusions summarize the need for counter imagery and visibility of women in all their natural semblances to repair the pre-ceding visual transgressions.
The essay begins with a brief background of the female body as seen through the male gaze. Here, two oppressive misrepresentations are established: the diminished normative woman (sexual objectification) and the invisible trans woman (mis-gendered as man). Similarly, the viewer is divided into two categories: the active and the passive viewer.
The central aim is to determine the need to materialize first-hand translations of visceral experience to reform the female body in the visual culture. This is done by examining works by female artists that feature the revalued female body. Amongst the artworks of this research, the artistic part of my thesis, ‘WHO/WHAT’ and ‘If these walls could talk’, are discussed in detail.
It also outlines how counter imagery is created when the female body is reclaimed and presented by female artists. Moreover, affirming their own gaze. One recurring method of producing counter imagery is the re-appropriation of attributes that had previously been used as methods of oppression. Additionally, this research analyses how the works invoke subjectivity in the way the viewer perceives the female body. References from researchers in the field of visual culture, gender studies, feminist art, perception and philosophy, are integrated to support the findings.
The main research questions that guide this thesis include: What are the methods used by female artists to empower their bodies? How has this affected visual culture? What do their works invoke in the viewer? How do their works undermine the hegemony of the male gaze and erase it from the female body? Conclusions summarize the need for counter imagery and visibility of women in all their natural semblances to repair the pre-ceding visual transgressions.