“In his studio the artist has no social
responsibility but when the artist displays his work the situation changes”
Shrigley,
David (2015) Untitled, synthetic polymer paint on paper,
Department International Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne. 153.0 × 111.0 cm
This quote has been
researched and understood by analysing a number of texts that relate
to the overarching theme, society. The main themes of the texts are sexuality
and objectification of women in the media. John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’
focuses on how women have been portrayed as objects in art, especially in nude
classical paintings where he explains “To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude
is to be seen by others and yet not recognised for oneself. A naked body has to
be seen as an object in order to become a nude.” Assuming the spectator of the
image is a heterosexual male being the owner and spectator of the painting and
the naked woman as something he has ownership of. The source also focuses on
how the objectification of women has become less popular in past art forms and
is now viewed more in the media such as magazines. This is explained in the
quote “In modern art the category of the nude has become less important…Today
the attitudes and values which informed that tradition is expressed through
other more widely diffused media-advertising, journalism, television.”
A similar view to John Berger’s
statements is also expressed in Daniel Chandler’s ‘Notes on the Gaze’ where he
focuses on modern photography in advertising explaining that “In some well-known
studies found that pupil dilation can also be a reflection of sexual
attraction, and that photographs of female models in which the pupils had been
artificially enlarged.” The two texts are similar as they both explain how
women have been objectified for centuries throughout art starting from
classical paintings and slowly becoming more invested in the media as a method
of selling products to consumers who are assumed to be male. The two texts were
both written within 30 years of one another. John Berger’s text being the
oldest in 1972 and Daniel Chandler’s in 1998. These two sources may be seen as
reliable as they printed in books which cannot be edited unlike the internet.
However, the opinions of the sources may seem outdated. David Gauntlett’s
‘Media, Gender and Identity’ (written in 2002) focuses more on the media of the
modern day and how women are portrayed in magazines and television. This text
explains “The traditional views of a woman as a housewife or low-status worker
has been kick-boxed out of the picture by the feisty, successful ‘girl power’
icons.” The source has the complete opposite tone to what the first two
analysed sources have mentioned. This makes it seem as though the objectification
of women in the media is no longer happening. It also explains how magazines
now influence and concentrate on making both genders better people for each
other as well as themselves. This is mentioned in the quote “Magazines are
often centred on helping men to be considerate lovers, useful around the home,
healthy, fashionable, and funny – in particular, being able to laugh at
themselves.” As well as “Magazines for young women are empathetic in their
determination that women must do their thing.”
When reading the David Guantlett ‘Media, Gender and Identity’ article as
a whole it explains that the objectification of women is no longer an issue in
modern society. Especially, through the influence of magazines in which the
text explains that “there is a generation of younger men who have adapted to
the modern world, who have grown up with women as their equals, and who do not
feel threatened or emasculated by these social changes.” As the media focuses
on making men a lot more considerate towards women in society. This article has
a completely different tone of voice compared to the John Berger and Daniel
Chandler texts as it speaks more positively of society and how it keeps
improving with women being a lot less objectified in the media. However, the
text as a whole seems to only focus on magazines rather than television and the
internet which could make it seem unreliable. This article was written in 2002
making it seem more reliable than the first two analysed sources. Although,
‘Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – Feminist Perspectives on
Objectification’ was written in 2016 which is even closer to the present day
than the David Guantlett article.
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – Feminist Perspectives on
Objectification focuses on different elements of objectification of women such
as instrumentality, violability, reduction to body and silencing which
immediately makes the article seem a lot stronger than the David Guantlett text
as it goes into more depths of objectification. It also speaks about how women
are still used in the media as sexualised objects which proves that the David
Guantlett text seems to be naïve to. The text mentions “Due to men’s
consumption of pornography, women as a group are reduced to the status of mere
tools for men’s purposes.” Which makes an argument against the David Gauntlett
text which explains that the media no longer objectifies women even though porn
is still being consumed at a high rate which is even higher than before as the
most popular porn magazines which as Zoo and FHM have been closed down which is
explained in a Guardian article “The lads’ mag market has been especially hard
hit by new technology and changing habits due to the easy availability of
nudity and pornography on the internet and the decline of the specific form of
‘lad culture’ that helped make the titles so successful.” This point made by
the Guardian further backs up the point made by the Stanford Encyclopaedia of
Philosophy article as it explains that objectification of women still exists
even if it is not seen in magazines as often. This text relates back to the
John Berger text as it mentions “In order to gain social acceptability, women
are under constant pressure to correct their bodies and appearance.” Making it
similar to Berger’s point of “She has to survey everything she is and
everything she does because of how she appears to others, and ultimately how
she appears to men. The argument as a whole when analysing and researching
further into these texts proves that women have always been objectified through
different forms of art and media.
Francisco Goya ‘The Nude Maja’ (1797-1800) is an oil painting of a nude
woman that has been specifically painted for the pleasure of a heterosexual
male spectator which is clearly seen as the woman is gazing out of the painting
and looking at the male. This point is emphasised as the consideration of the
rule of thirds and line of sight have been used as she is stretched diagonally
across the page with the main elements of the woman’s body (breasts, genitals,
waist and hips) being more central, covering the large majority of the piece.
Composition has also been considered in the use of value as the background
areas of the image are a lot darker than the more frontal elements of the
image, especially the pale skin of the woman which makes her the focal point.
The painting was created in 1797-1800. ‘The Nude Maja’ is most well-known for
how she gazes out of the image at the spectator, making herself enticing. As
well as the rumour that the woman was possibly the mistress of Francisco Goya
himself. The painting was painted alongside another where the woman is fully
clothed to give to the wealthy male patron who requested them. The clothed
painting was presumably painted to hang over the top of the nude to hide it
when there were visitors. This point relates to John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’
where he explains “To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked
by others and yet not recognised for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an
object in order to become a nude.” This quote emphasises how women were
objectified in society during this period as the nude painting is hidden away
from viewers other than the spectator who owns it as her naked body is seen as
private that only one person can see, the male who bought the painting. Daniel
Chandler’s ‘Notes on the Gaze’ text further supports how the woman has been
sexualised in this painting as he explains “To gaze implies more than to look
at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is
superior to the object of the gaze.” Meaning the male spectator of the image is
more important than the woman in the painting and he has complete ownership of
her.
Similarly, a propaganda poster from the ‘Torches of Freedom’ campaign
with the phrase “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere” is a strong
example of women being objectified in the media. The background of the image
uses yellow/orange tones which could be seen as romanticising the scenario that
the two people are in, almost like a sunset. The woman is also placed slightly
lower and looking up towards the man making her appear smaller and lower status
than him which relates back to how women are objectified in media as a method
of consumerism. This point is strengthened with a point from Daniel Chandler’s
‘Notes on the Gaze’ where he explains “Men tend to be located higher than women
in these ads, symbolically reflecting the routine subordination of women to men
in society.” This image was created in the 1960s to promote the sale of
cigarettes to both a male and female audience. This particular poster is aimed at
heterosexual young men as the woman in the image suits society’s standards of
beauty during that era meaning the men may think that they will be able to
attract a woman of that standard if they begin smoking. The point of how women
are objectified in media is also mentioned in the ‘Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
– Feminist Perspectives on Objectification’ such as “There is a powerful
objectifier on one hand, and the other hand there exists his powerless victim.”
This can be clearly seen in the image as one blow of the cigarette smoke
appears to almost hypnotise her meaning he has power over her. In this
advertisement, the woman has been objectified for means of consumerism to
promote the sale of cigarettes making the use of women a strong selling point.
Objectification of women is still largely seen across different forms of
media in the present day. Claudia Chanhoi expresses this through her work. Such
as her “Ready-to-eat Pâté” piece. The message of the piece is to express how
women are sexualised in advertisements to sell products. This is expressed
through the text of the image with the phrase “ready-to-eat” and a symbol of a
female breast showing how easy it is to use women as a method of consumerism.
The colours are minimal throughout the whole image with elements of pink which
has connotations of femininity as well as skin which can be seen in the piece.
The image has been created using vectors to make the shapes as simplistic as
possible but the objects still look representational. Claudia began creating
this kind of work when she began working on a project called ‘Sexual
Objectification of Women’. As well as growing up in Hong Kong with a Catholic
family, meaning she was taught that women’s sexuality is seen as vulnerable.
This work creates an argument against David Guantlett’s ‘Media, Gender and
Identity’ text which focuses on how women are no longer objectified in
magazines as well as mentioning “Identity is today seen as more fluid and
transformable than ever before.” But the work that Claudia Chanhoi is making a
light-hearted approach to how women are used as sex objects to sell products.
Her work is also supported by the ‘Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – Feminist
Perspectives on Objectification’ mentions “all the focus is placed on a woman’s
body, in a way that her mind or personality are not adequately acknowledged.”
This emphasises the images that Claudia creates as the media rarely uses a
woman’s intelligence to promote a product. Claudia Chanhoi’s work has a
humorous approach towards how women are sexualised in the media. Although, the
work may seem funny when it is looked into further it is clear that the message
of the work is making a joke out of how women are still being used in Western
countries.
The most used theme in this visual journal in response to David Shrigley’s
quote is how women are objectified in the media, focusing prominently on
pornography. The practical response to the quote visualises how women are constantly
objectified in the media for a male spectator’s pleasure. In pornography, the
focal point of the image tends to be the woman’s body. Throughout the majority of
the visual journal the focus is on whether the photographer has considered the
compositional elements such as line of sight and rule of thirds. This is most
clear in one of the practical responses where the image of a woman has been
split into segments to exaggerate the focal point of the image further as well
as making the line of sight become more noticeable. This is supported by John
Berger’s quote “The easy solution for the photographer is to turn the
photographer to turn the figure into a nude which, by generalising both sight
and viewer and making sexuality unspecific, turns desire into fantasy.” This
supports this particular practical piece as it is clear in the original image that
there has been no intended use of line of sight. The image has been analysed in
depth to try and create a consideration of composition. It could be argued that
the photographer hasn’t considered more creative skills because the audience of
the magazine only focus on the women’s bodies. This relates to the problems in
society because of how the person who has taken the pornographic photographs hasn’t
had to use the skill of considering composition as they didn’t feel the need to
because the audience of the magazine will not be focusing on the artistic skill
but rather objectify the woman in the image.
This practical piece relates to the Francisco Goya ‘Nude of Maja’. This
is because the woman in the painting is placed diagonally across the image in a
similar position to the woman in the pornographic image which shows a
consideration for the rule of thirds. Compositional elements such as value of
light and dark tones can also be seen in both images. The women in each image
stand out from the background because the tonal values are a dark compared to
the light toned skin of the women making them the focal point. As well as the
consideration of composition the painting and the pornographic collage relate
because of how they have been objectified for the spectator’s pleasure. This
statement is supported by John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ which explains “Thus
she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a
sight.” This speaks about how women were seen for the pleasure of the spectator
and how the woman is objectifying herself which still happens today which is
explained in the Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – Feminist Perspectives on
Objectification where it states “All the focus is placed on a woman’s body, in
a way that her mind or personality are not adequately acknowledged.” This shows
how women’s bodies have always been used for male’s pleasure whether it is in a
classical painting or the media.
The visual journal also focuses on how women are objectified in the
media as a method of consumerism. This is focused on in some aspects of the
journal through means of collage where pornographic material has been used
alongside products from advertisements which creates a sense of humour, almost
making a joke out of existing adverts such as Herbal Essences. Herbal Essences’
adverts are often seen as oversexualised and borderline pornographic. This idea
is expressed through the visual journal, especially in one of the practical
responses consisting of a collage involving a woman from a pornographic
magazine in an explicit pose whilst appearing to hold a shampoo bottle. This
practical response is supported in a quote from Daniel Chandler’s ‘Notes on the
Gaze’ which states “Men tend to be located higher than women in these ads,
symbolically reflecting the routine subordination of women and men in society.”
This quote relates the idea of using pornographic content of women to advertise
products such as Herbal Essences through collaging methods. This piece from the
visual journal relates to the overarching theme of society because of how women
are used in the media is sexualised objects as a method of consumerism. The
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – Feminist Perspectives on Objectification supports
this statement in the quote “Money is the medium of force and provides the
cover of consent.” Although, this statement from the article is speaking
specifically about pornography, it can be related back to women who are used as
objects in advertisements because of how women feel like they don’t have a choice
other than to be sexualised to earn a living. This is also emphasised by David
Guantlett’s ‘Media, Gender and Identity’ which mentions “Men’s magazines have
an almost obsessive relationship with the socially constructed nature of
manhood.” This explains how men are almost hypnotised into objectifying women
by being more masculine.
This piece of work in the visual journal was inspired by the Torches of
Freedom campaign poster with the slogan “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you
anywhere.” The woman in the Torches of Freedom poster because of how she
appears to be hypnotised by the man blowing cigarette smoke in her face, making
her an object for male desire. A similar idea is also expressed in the visual
journal piece because of how the woman’s body from the porn magazine is used as
a method of selling the product. The only difference is that the visual journal
piece is a more explicit version of the Torches of Freedom which makes it more
relatable in today’s society where everything appears to be more sexualised and
erotic than images in the past.
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