Gaze

“Gaze” responds to Jacki Wilson’s essay “Being Gorgeous: Feminism, Sexuality and the Pleasures of the Visual”. Wilson’s essay highlights the imbalance of power in the male artist’s use of the female body as an object to construct his idea of artistic beauty and aesthetic appeal, while ignoring the model’s own erotic desires, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. This objectification of the female body is evident in the history of art, where women have been depicted as passive and powerless objects of male desire.

My piece “Gaze” is an attempt to respond to these themes by creating a visual commentary on the history of art and the way women have been represented within it. By using Adobe Photoshop, I was able to put all of these women from different eras in the same room. The women in my piece are all looking at the Venus statue, a representation of the idealized female body that has been celebrated in art for centuries. However, unlike the Venus statue, the women in my piece are diverse in their appearance, challenging the narrow beauty standards that have been imposed on women throughout history. I hope to highlight the ways in which the representation of women in art has been limited by the male gaze, and to offer a more nuanced and complex view of the female experience.


One of the key themes that Wilson explores in her essay is the power imbalance that exists between the male artist and the female model. As Wilson notes, “[Women are] the objects, not the subjects. There was an imbalance of power. The male artist was using the woman’s naked body to construct his idea of artistic beauty and aesthetic appeal. The model’s erotic desires, thoughts, feelings and emotions were irrelevant” (Wilson 4). This quote highlights the power dynamic that exists between the male artist and the female model, and the way in which the female body has been used to construct an idealized and often unrealistic representation of beauty. This objectification of the female body is evident in the history of art, where women have been depicted as passive and powerless objects of male desire.

Through my work, I aim to challenge this dynamic by presenting a more active and empowered vision of women. In “Gaze” the women are not simply objects of desire, but are instead engaged in the act of looking. They are aware of their own power as subjects, and are actively participating in the creation of their own representations. By doing so, I hope to subvert the traditional power dynamic that exists between the male artist and the female model, and to offer a more empowering vision of the female experience.