The Male Gaze vs. The Female View

S T E P H A N I E R A M I R E Z

A R T A N D W O M E N F A L L 2 0 1 1

What would I look like if I would get painted??

Art and Women teaches us how male artists have depicted the female gender through paintings. The male gaze is a system in art where men paint the female nude as an object for other men to gaze upon, making them the “male owner spectator”, painting women as posing objects and not as the human beings that they are. Men concentrated only on the female body without use of action or resistance.

How about the women of color? For they weren’t the first choice when it came to painting the female body. How do male artists display their image of the colored female body?

(Painting above) “Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle Lindsay”, unknown artist, 1779

(Painting Below) “Olympia”, Edouard Manet, 1863

“Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle Lindsay” – What does this painting display at first glance??

The two girls are actually cousins

Dido Belle Lindsay although raised by the same family she was not allowed into the social society

When guests were invited she could not eat at the table

“Olympia” – the African American woman is clearly the maid and she is looking directly at the white woman while she lies there nude.

At first glance viewers automatically look at the female nude

“Two Tahitian Women”, 1899

“Te Arii Vahine Aka The Kings Wife”, 1896

Paul Gauguin’s Primitives

Gauguin was a French, Post-Impressionist artist. His paintings of Tahitian women represent violence and control. Replay the unequal relationship of the male artist and female model in the inequalities of the white male artist’s relationship to native women. Paintings bind women to nature , the male gaze looks down on them. (Chadwick pg. 290)

A majority of Gauguin’s collection of Tahitian the women were always surrounded by fruits.

Women were considered PRIMITIVE

OUR FEMALE VIEW

Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait as wounded deer”, 1946

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, “When I am not here / Estoy Alla”, 1994

Frida painted this self-portrait after the failed attempt to operate her back in New York; expresses her disappointment after the operation on her spine

The deer is surrounded by trees and trapped, interpreting Frida’s desperation and frustration to have a successful operation

Frida Kahlo was not able to bear children after her accident, she had attempted a few times each failing; being robbed from the opportunity of motherhood was also expressed in her artwork

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pon, illustrates a depiction of women living through motherhood with the two milk bottles right above the breasts. In my opinion this particular painting represents breast feeding

(above) Judy Baca, “The Great Wall of Los Angeles”, 1976-1984.

(left) Marta Maria Perez-Bravo, “Protection”, 1990.

Judy Baca: The People’s History Mural illustrating the dustbowl migration of the 1930s.

Thousands fled to California after severe drought & economic hardship.

The image of the mother and children fleeing in my opinion represents once again motherhood, courage, and family. The mother is wearing a bandana that covers half of her face: she looks fearless and determined

Perez-Bravo’s artwork were mostly photographs of herself taken by her husband in specific situations that, “explore feminine identity and the condition of being female in ways that counter patriarchally constructed stereotypes of womanhood” (Chadwick, 428).

So…What would I look like if I would get painted??

Alice Neel, “Pregnant Maria”, 1964

Bibliography

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson. New York. 2007. Fourth Edition.

“Frida Kahlo – Self-portrait as wounded deer (1946)”. Found on Flicker.com. 03 December 2011.

“Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle Lindsay”. Found on a Blog – Pauline’s Pirates and Privateers. 03 December 2011.