OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
To What Extent Is ‘The Gaze’ Theory Still Relevant In Modern Advertising “ Advertisements rather provide a structure which is capable of transforming the language of objects to that of people and vice versa ” (Williamson, J. Decoding Advertisements” Advertisements are a big part of today’s life, they are an important factor that shapes the way in which we live. Even if you don’t read the newspaper or watch the television, you can’t escape adverts as they are posted all around the surroundings in which we live in. Advertisements create structures of meaning; they sell things to us. They have to take the characteristics of the products they are selling and make them mean something to the viewer. In other words they make the viewer think that they need to product and that, that product will improve their lifestyle. One technique used in advertisements is ‘The Gaze’. This is a psychoanalytical term, which was first brought into use by Jacques Lacan. It was used to describe the awareness that a person can be viewed upon. In todays society it is used by many theorists to refer how both viewers look at images of people and to the gaze of people being depicted any visual medium. Lacans idea of ‘The gaze’ was challenged by many philosophers the main and most famous for doing so was Michel Foucault. He spoke about the gaze in his book ‘ Discipline and punish’ which adapted the gaze for power relations and discipline mechanisms. “ The Gaze is integral to systems of power and ideas about knowledge” (Foucault, M. Discipline and Punish) The gaze is not something that someone has or can use; it is a relationship in which someone enters. In 1975 ‘The Gaze’ was again brought to light, but this time in a feminist view. Laura Mulvey spoke about ‘The gaze’ in her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. The concept in which she took was that women are objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera. They would make the camera linger on the curves of the female body, making them an object on which the males can look upon. For the women to identify with this, they would have to put themselves in the view of the male. “Pleasure in looking has been split between active-‐male and passive-‐female” (Mulvey 1992, 27). “
OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
Mulvey refers ‘the male gaze’ to the term scopophilia -‐ the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects. This is most apparent when watching a film in the cinema. The darkness of the auditorium makes it okay for the viewer to look upon the women in the film, as they cannot be seen looking back and other members in the auditorium cannot see them doing it. Another example of the male gaze is taken from Coward. R essay on ‘ The look’. In this essay she has depicted a picture of a women stood in the streets with little clothing, but high heels and sunglasses on. Here it is seen that the camera in contemporary media has been used as an extension of the male gaze. The nudity of the women normalises this view of women in the media and makes it seem ‘okay’ for them to view upon like this by the males. Also the use of the sunglasses and high heels adds the glamour element to the photograph, women must dress to impress and be at their best at all times because they are constantly viewed and judged upon. But this is not the correct image to be using in the media as all girls that see this will think this is the accepted style and start to dress and act like themselves. In todays society the male gaze can be seen in more than just advertisements and films, take for instance ‘Shes so lovely’ by Scouting for Girls. In the song the lyrics are ‘ I love the way she fills her clothes. She looks just like them girls in Vogue’ Along with the lyrics applying the male gaze, when watching the video you can also see that this is demonstrated. Throughout the video the woman is constantly the main attraction, the camera looks up and down her body and lingers around the shape of her body and how she looks. The males within the video are watching and looking upon the woman and group of women in the video again taking the characteristics of the male gaze. This is an example of a modern application of ‘The Gaze’. “According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have no means been overcome – men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” (Berger, 1972). In the quote above the last sentence is often overlooked because it is misunderstood. Berger means that it is difficult for women no to think as themselves as being looked at, because they are used in this way so much in the media, compared to men. Women are constantly surveying the idea of femininity. John Berger studied the gaze within the Renaissance period in particular within oil paintings. In this time the paintings were done by male artists for the male viewers, it was exclusively for males and that could be seen in the direction of the paintings. The women were always nude and often had their body turned
OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
towards the viewer, with their head turned away. This direction of the gaze made it okay for the viewer to be looking upon her, as she couldn’t see them looking. The women in the paintings knew they were being used as an object to be looked at by the males, but accepted this, as it was now part of society for men to do this. A good example of this is Hans Memling painting of ‘Vanity’. This was painted by a male artist, the composition of the woman in the painting was like that because the artist enjoyed looking at her naked. Often symbols were used within in paintings, this one included a mirror which the woman is looking into, this gives the impression of the woman being vain – hence the name ‘Vanity’ and making it seem viable for people to look upon her, but really it seen as symbol that the woman is looking at herself, just like all the viewer will be looking at her. Berger also add that “ All most all Renaissance European sexual imagery is frontal – either literally or metaphorically – because the sexual protagonist is the spectator – owner looking at it” (Berger, 1972) A great example of this is the painting of ‘Birth of Venus’ by artist Alexandre Cabanel. In this painting a women is seen to be a Goddess – Venus, this implies high in power and someone to be looked at as a figure, the status of this person claims that is someone of this class can be like this and condone such an act then it must be okay for us to look at it. The position in which she is placed draws the viewers to her body, which is facing us, with her head turned away and covered by her hand. The majority of the painting is taken up by her body itself, focusing the attention on that and not of her, this makes it easy for the viewer to look at her as a sexual object it becomes no sort of challenge for them as she is presenting herself to them. This same idea and position of the gaze can be seen in the modern advertisement for Opium which features Sophie Dahl. Here the original photography for the ad had Sophie Dahl laid in a similar position as the painting above, she was naked covering her breasts with her hands. When this was presented to the company they turned it down straight away because they thought it was too sexual. To correct this the designers simply rotated the image, so it was portrait and this gave the whole thing a completely different meaning. Now the main attention went to the model head and not just her body. It doesn’t seem as though she is laying there and presenting herself in a sexual way like before. Which brings us onto the direction of the gaze, within any painting or advertisement there is always a direction of gaze. This is how the model in frame is looking back at the viewer; many theorists can depict a meaning from the way in which they are gazing.
OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
To illustrate this we can compare Titians ‘Venus of Urbino’, 1538 and Manet’s ‘Olympia’, 1863. Here both paintings include a model which is laid out on a chaise longue. Both models are looking directly at the viewer, but the expressions in which they have are both different. In ‘Venus or Urbino’ her head is positioned looking up at the viewer, she has the knowledge that the viewer is present, but doesn’t want the attention to be on her face. To change this her arm is positioned casually leading you down her body, to where she covers herself with her hand, but it is still in an inviting way and makes the viewer now look at her body. In comparison ‘Olympia’ is more assertive. The model is still in the same position but her head is lifted more as though she is acknowledging the viewer and presenting towards them. She is covering herself in the same way except her hand is pressed against her body in a more defensive way. We can depict from the painting that model is most likely to be a prostitute as it is showing success and wealth through the jewels and flowers that she is receiving – probably from one of her admirers. This painting was seen as modern reality and shocked the society. The black cat is also a symbol of individual femininity and independence again showing that she is doing it for the wealth it brings her. “It is the expression of a woman responding with calculated charm to the man whom she imagines looking at her – although she doesn’t know him. She is offering up her femininity as the surveyed” (Berger. J, 1972, p56) We can look at Ingres ‘Le Grand Odalisque’, 1814. Here the model in the painting has there back turned to the viewer and is looking over her shoulder, with part of her breast showing between her arm and body. The expression of the model is enticing to the male, she is only showing part of her body to the viewer but enough to make him want more, the expression on her face acknowledges this idea as she looks the viewer straight in the eye. In Berger’s Ways of seeing he compares this painting to a modern photograph of a young girl in a magazine advertisement saying that the expression is the same in both and therefore both are doing the same thing to the viewer. This is becoming more present in todays society, as younger women read these magazines and see the sort of images in this advertisements, they want to become that women and start to change to be more like them. Charles Lewis has reported “From the mid 1980’s onwards and present today American teenagers have chosen to be portrayed differently in there high-‐school yearbooks – the focus of their eyes has shifted from a straightforward, open look to a sideways glance resembling glamour poses in fashion magazines” (citied in Barry 1997, 268). The final example of the direction of gaze comes from Eva Herzegovina Wonderbra advertisement in 1994. IN this advertisement there is a women
OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
dressed in only lingerie looking down, with the title ‘Hello Boys’. The idea of the model looking down is to accept her body and and look at what she is showing to the world. She is showing that nudity on the street is accepted and acts to the voyeurism within the males. These examples I have used to describe the direction of gaze have all involved women – which is because the gaze is mainly seen to be men gazing upon women. But there are advertisements that use male models and still work in the same way, with the same elements that of the women advertisements. Paul Messaris comments that “During the past two decades or so, there has been a notable countertrend in male-‐oriented advertising, featuring men whose poses contain some of the same elements – including the direct view – tradionally associated with women’ (Messaris 1997, 45). Take Dolce & Gabbana advertisement from 2007. This pictures a group of males in only underwear in a gym stood around a weights machine. All the males are looking directly at the viewer, just like the paintings and ads that include women. However the way in which we interpret this is much different to that of women. Instead of females looking at the viewer to acknowledge them or entice them in, the males are looking at the viewer in the way of authority, its like they are saying ‘ I know you are looking at me’. The male’s body here is seen as a powerhouse, depicted from the gym and weights, they are the active gender and the cult of fitness. This is showing what all males should look like and that they should have that dominating attitude towards women. As well as oil paintings ‘The gaze’ was present in other means of mass media. Throughout the 1950’s Vue magazine took on the same representation of women as described throughout the essay. The front covers would always include a women model with very little clothing, they would have child like faces with adult bodies. This would appeal to the male viewers by having a natural looking woman. Again the magazine took on the concept of designing for males by males; the women on the front of the magazine are what the designers think is an ideal woman and how they should look. Along with the front covers the stories within the magazines all played on sexual notations; the articles were about dominating women and how to act around them / how they should act towards you. In today’s society these attitudes and values, which were tradition when the theorists came about them, are now more widely used in the mass media today though advertising, journalism and television. But the way of seeing women and how the images are used hasn’t changed. Women are still depicted in a different
OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
way from men because the ideal spectator is always assumed to be a man and the images of the women are designed to flatter him. In the mass media today women are seen and made up to be something that men would like to see and to have a good appearance. This usually tends to be big breasts, long hair and tanned. A good example of this is Katie Price. Culture wants women to be and look like this, but it can also be seen as a joke because Katie Price has been trapped into what the media has said and taking the advertising ‘ideal’ women on board to make herself look like this. This in turn is playing into the male and again showing that male have the better power. Another great examples of modern advertisement is the Wonderbra ad ‘ I cant cook. Who cares?’ Here you can see that woman is more dominant by making the eye contact with the viewer, along with the way she is positioned with the clothes – its that of someone in power. The tagline ‘I cant cook. Who cares?’ can be seen as the expectation that men have of women, they should cook for them but if they cant then they can be a sexual object – which being in a bra sexualizes the female model. This advertisement works for both the male and female viewer as the males will want their girlfriends to be like this and take on this dominating role, so they will go out and buy the bra. The females can associate with the advert and want be an assertive and dominant female and go out and the bra for themselves. The most male dominant advertisements of today’s society can be seen with Lynx. They have many advertising campaigns but I have found an example of one, which uses Kelly Brook as the model. Here she is in a kitchen pulling a chicken out of the oven with the tagline ‘ Can she make you lose control?’ "Clearly this comfort is connected with feeling secure or powerful. And women are bound to this power precisely because visual impressions have been elevated to the position of holding the key to our psychic well-‐being, our social success and index to whether or not we will be loved" (Coward. R, ‘The Look’) The position that women has been placed in within the advert, makes it more sexual, the first part of her body you see is her long legs and bum, this draws you in to her and makes you look at her, which she looks back at you with a very submissive face. Again this is appealing to the male gender and giving them something to look at, along with the aspect of being able to fantasize about the women, it refers back to the idea of a 'Peeping Tom' and the fact that the males can distance themselves from the image and women but still can think about her in the fantasy they create.
OUGD501
Nathan Bolton
BAGD Level 5
The words ' Can she make you lose control' are used in the advert which i think are relating to that fact that males see themselves as the dominating gender. Even the fact that they control how a women should behave around them. This sentence is used because the submissive women in the advert is very different to what the male is used to, the women is what the males would fantasize about, yet she is there in front of them doing everything they think a women should do, so in a sense they have lost control of that. It also has sexual connotations, which links in with the feel of the advert. The quote from Coward, R, "The Look" describes this idea of the women living up to the expectation of the male. "Some people -‐ those concerned with maintaining the status quo -‐ say that men's scrutiny of women is just part of the natural order " "Advertisements set in motion work and the desire for products; narcissistic damage is required to hold us in this axis of work and consumption" (Coward. R, “The Look”) Advertising and the media, plays a big part of the society today, children and young adults are brought up around the media, through TV, magazines and the internet and because of this they often look up to celebrities and people in the press to base their own lifestyle on. Similar to the Renaissance when you would look up to the high status figure within the paintings. The same attitudes towards women are still being depicted in modern day advertisements. Women are being advertised with the 'perfect body', making females in society think that they need to be like this. Males are still seen as the ideal spectator, which makes them think it is okay for them to look upon women in a voyeuristic way. I have demonstrated how the gaze has been applied throughout different times in society and that is still a significant technique used in modern advertising today.