Triangulation Essay

"In the studio the artist has no social responsibility. But when the artist displays his work the situation changes." – David Shrigley

For this study, I would like to investigate the term ‘male gaze’ and how that has impacted the  roles of women within art and how they have changed and affected the history of. I also wish to investigate the artists social responsibility within this theme and understanding of target audience and appealing to the mass culture.

I would like to reference John Berger and his book entitled “Ways of Seeing” [1972]. Berger highlights the idea of the male gaze by first interpreting the definition of “sight”. He states that the human gaze is only in perspective to the individual and that is thus narrow and singular; due to this, when generalised, certain things lack substance and are difficult to relate to. However, in regards to European oil painting and the tradition of the female “nude”, generalising has lead, rather rapidly to sexism and causes derogatory ideas towards the naked female figure. “She is not naked as she is, she is naked as the spectator sees her” [1972, pg. 50] summarises this theme. The naked female form is only labelled as nude within the context of the spectator, hence the social responsibility of the artist is to understand the target audience and the opinions and viewpoints of the masses in society.

Berger also speaks about the “surveyor” and the “surveyed” [1972, pg. 47], he goes into depth about how the female nude in particular always appears to be staring out of the painting, disregarding the situation around her to focus entirely on the male audience for which the paintings were originally created for, or otherwise known as the “surveyors”. 

Berger also stated that women look at themselves through the eyes of a man, whereas men look at women. “A woman must continually watch herself” [1972], she is always in the presence of her own image, her sexual objectification follows her always, and she is always aware of it. She has been taught this from early childhood, persuaded to always survey herself as men survey her. “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity.”” [1972, pg. 51]. When a woman begins to understand the implications her image has under the male gaze, she is berated, even though her vanity has been depicted purely for the pleasure of the audience in the first place, therefore the negative connotations towards her are hypocritical. In short, in traditional art, men made images for other men. These images showed objects of desire; women.

Laura Mulvey’s ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ [1975] explores the same concept of the male gaze. She states; “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” [1975] There is a stark visual narrative about the way in which women are presented, they are there to serve the male gaze, and they are there to enjoy serving the male gaze. In an essay in which she considered women in classical Hollywood cinema, Mulvey outlined that “the camera is used as a tool of voyeurism and sadism, disempowering those before its gaze”, thus bringing us to reflect on the progression of the female character within media and art and understand that, although masked by changes in society, the female role has stayed the same.

For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Rear Window [1954] represents a clear example of female roles as the surveyed, and the leading male role as the surveyor. In the beginning of the film he observes three women through binoculars; “Miss Torso”, “Miss Lonelyhearts”, and a bedridden wife. The visuals of him surveying these women is brash due to the use of binoculars. Their existence is used to draw the leading male and the audience’s attention to the events unfolding around them. They are suddenly not characters in their own right but merely a plot device. This was later coined by popular culture as a ‘manic pixie dream girl’. This term is commonly referenced to Michel Gondry’s film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]. This is backed up by Mulvey’s quote "The presence of a woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of the story line, tor freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation." [1972].

Furthering this, David Chandler focuses on the digital age and discusses the use of the camera to control the audiences gaze in his essay Notes on “The Gaze” [1998]. He specifies that when a photographer or filmmaker is at work, he temporarily holds complete power over his muses. This power is then subsequently handed over to the viewers of the image or film. It is important to remember however that the camera is merely a tool in this process and that the ultimate responsibility is on the artist. Photography as a medium is particularly accessible and thus a large breeder of the normalisation of the sexualised form. Susan Sontag specifies in her book On Photography [1979] that “Like sexual voyeurism, it is a way of at least tacitly, often explicitly, encouraging what is going on to keep happening” [1979 pg. 178].


Berger, J (1972) "Ways Of Seeing" 1st edition. Penguin Books Ltd

Chandler, D (1998) "Notes on the Gaze", Available at: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/gaze/ [Accessed: 26.04.17]

Gondry, M (2004) "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Screen.

Hitchcock, A (1954) "Rear Window". Screen.

Mulvey, L (1972) "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". Screen. Oxford Journals.

Sontag, Susan (1979): "On Photography". Harmondsworth: Penguin