COMM121: Introduction to Mass Communications

Welcome to the Spring 2009 edition of Intro to Mass Communications.  Here is a link to your course wiki page.  Remember that you need to log in to post to either the wiki or the blog!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Male gaze in art

I have also noticed how, even though men were the first portrayed nude in art, nude women are far more common. I noticed this especially around the Renaissance or 1500s, when art (especially paintings) were more realistic. Paintings such as Venus with a Mirror, Venus and Cupid, Sleeping Venus, the Three Graces, Birth of Venus, and so on all feature nude women. The artists who painted these great works were men: therefore their view, or "gaze," was biased towards women. They painted women because their view towards them was one of beauty because that is what their human instincts tell them to appreciate. This trend of nude women in art has shaped our society today. For instance, the Seinfeld clip below, the Mardi Gras tradition of flashing, and the skimpy clothes that girls wear are all areas of nudity or something along the lines of it that are socially acceptable for women but not for men.

1 comment:

  1. Definitely. It's still like that now, honestly. John Berger discusses it fantastically in his book _Ways of Seeing_. It's short and has TONS of pictures, but is very thought-provoking...if you're interested in the topic you should check it out. A contrasting approach (and also short and full of pictures) is the work _The Medium is the Massage_ by Marshall McLuhan and a bunch of artists.

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