How does the male gaze present women in the art world?
By Maddison Ball
“When racism and sexism are no longer fashionable, what will your art collection be worth?”- Guerilla Girls, 1985
What is the male gaze? As a term worn thin in feminist theory, the male gaze is often described as the perspective and looking of a heterosexual man as embodied as the intended audience for films and other visual media, that is always characterised to sexualise and objectify women. Living in such an image-based culture as today, myths of how women should look, behave and feel are persistently fed out and filtered into the common perception of the female body, by every agent of socialisation offered to us. The male gaze, therefore, presents women in a wholly derogatory position, throughout every sector of contemporary cultures media.
Music:
It can be said that while the male gaze isn’t necessarily always inflicted by men, women are held sufferable of scrutiny of the outsider, regarding anything they do. This is especially true in the music industry as, from analysis of recent statistics, female musicians are most widely acknowledged by female listeners, with very little interaction from men. This only imposes light on how such a lack of accreditation is shared among female successors and why the lack of positivity in the male gaze allows for the female experience to be mired in assessments of beauty and desirability. Women represent less than 1/3 of artists in the music world today, with 12.6% of songwriters on the charts. On Spotify, female listeners stream 30.5% from female or mixed-gender artists, while male listeners stream 17.2%. While such a difference in listening between male and female artists may not be seen as a result of inherent sexism by some, a certain ignorance towards female success has to exist for there to be such a lack of listeners for those women more favourable and profitable in the industry.
Photography:
“Given that we have an equal amount of female image-makers today, it’s interesting that women are still being represented as objects for the male gaze in commercial photography and film”. Words by photographer Petrina Hicks remain verifiably correct as she prophesises how female photographers aren’t or will never be seen as inherently par with those photographers of the opposite sex. In a world of modern photography, with more female creators than before, female photography typically shows the camera to be a tool of power- a synthesis of man and machine, successful in its ability to break or build on stereotypes.
When female photography existed to be “made by men for a capitalist economy to favour the male gaze and feed female competitiveness” (Jansen, C.2017:2-3), the toxicity of the male gaze in firing female success was never corrected by that of the female. Looking at photographs of women as more than just an expression of femininity would eliminate what contemporary culture told us we had permanent access to. Zanele Muholi, a South African photographer, attempts to eliminate this mistreatment from such a scrutinising male gaze in her work. “It’s about claiming the spaces, taking back power, owning our voices and ourselves and our bodies, without fear of being judged.” The humanity common across all Muholi’s subjects is irrespective of the male gaze. Female photographers today, such as the mask wearing Guerilla Girls shocking the public with the truth (1985-present), aim to broaden society’s perception of what women are and what they do in a way that doesn’t have to be presented in an image that is beautiful and aesthetic- consequently satisfying a patriarchal and heteronormative gaze first.
Art history:
The male gaze in depicting artwork featuring women and heedlessness towards an accountability for female success has perpetuated throughout art history, too.
Throughout the 19th century, art dealers etched out the signatures of female artists on their artwork and replaced them with the signature of a male artist, increasing the piece’s value, worth and ultimately the price. Arguably though, is this the fault of the art dealer for diminishing the female artists piece with a male signature to increase her profit, or is this the fault of society and its standards in attaching such a negative adjunct to female art in the first place? A 2019 study revealed that 87% of artworks across the 18 major US art museums are claimed by men (Hessel: 2019: p10), and only 1% of artists amongst London’s National Gallery Collection are women. While artists and creators are becoming braver and more diverse in creating political statements through their art, female artists are becoming less of a trend and an exception and are exerting their way forwards, moving faster than the world is turning. Such a progression should not yet be halted, as the woman artist takes hold of her own identity, henceforth determining who she is, rejecting the definitions of which society has branded her.
In conclusion, while such an experience as the objectifying male gaze is an issue of urgency, it is apparent that due to the intersectionality of issues women of colour face, intensified scrutiny is placed upon their bodies, where white women receive less (because the lives of black and white women will never run parallel), due to the intersectionality faced by black women. The female, from all corners of the world, has historically equalled the exhibitionism to compliment the male voyeuristic tendencies, but this power dynamic in the art world is slowly melting. Female artists are refusing the benignness of the surround, and claiming back space in the art world, diverting the male scopophilia desires and their negative projections of how a woman should exist.
References:
Hessel, K. (2022). The Story Of Art Without Men. Hutchinson Heinemann. https://www.thebookseller.com/news/hessels-the-story-of-art-without-men-named-waterstones-book-of-the-year
Jansen, C. (2017). Girl on Girl: Art And Photography In The Age Of The Female Gaze. London: Laurence King Publishing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Art-Photography-Female-Gaze/dp/1780679556