12.

Feminist Art and the "male gaze" 

 While revisiting 1960's feminist art pieces in preparation for my final art history exam, I discovered many conceptual links to our course material.  Much of feminist art plays with the idea of the persisting "male gaze"-  the concept that, throughout western history, images of women have been conventionally constructed with a male "lens". Many feminist artists explore the idea that images of women are created without female perspective and that, consequentially, this subjects women to an "out of body" experience when viewing them. This kind of art often reveals that females are accustomed to removing themselves from their bodies and to viewing themselves and their peers as objects. 


Barbara Kruger, who held a position at Mademoiselle magazine, is known for creating images that play with the dictatorial nature of media images and text. Her work below presents a lifeless, stone-cold profile of an "ideal" women. On top of the image, she places the text: "Your / gaze / hits / the / side / of / my / face." As the broken, staccato effect of the message allows each and every word to sink in, the message becomes immediately and concisely powerful. As viewers, we see and take in only her profile. Our line of sight impersonally "hits" the side of the woman's face. Her head is merely a solid form, with which we have visually made contact. No permeation has occurred, no question as to the content of her character has developed. 

http://lookintomyowl.com/barbara-kruger-pre-digital.html

This piece instantly transports me to Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth, in which she cites the art historical analysis of Marina Warner, author of Monuments and Maidens. Warner wonders why "individual men's names and faces are enshrined in monuments, supported by identical, anonymous (and 'beautiful') stone women"(58).  Like in Kruger's piece, women in art are frequently not permitted individuality. Warner goes on to explain what I believe is the core behind Kruger's piece: "Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the relations of men to women, but the relation of women to themselves" (58). The work above very formally presents this "looking" phenomenon. We,  as viewers (female or male), are made acutely aware of the nature of our visual contact, how we refuse to see humanity in the figure.