The impact of Female Self-Portraiture that criticises the male gaze.

This chapter is going to analyse female self-portraiture from three photographers; aiming to open a discussion based around female self-portraiture that creates awareness towards the male gaze and the problems this creates. A lot of these photographs directly appeal to the male gaze while opposing it by creating a constructed scenario through performativity and realisation of self.

Juno Calypso is a female self-portrait photographer that creates images that translate to oppression and voyeurism. Calypso rarely shows her face within these images and if present it is often partially hidden or seen through mirrors, this relays a strong message of identity being taken by a constructed femininity. Calypso has created a collection of photographs under the name “The Honeymoon” [16]. The name of this series is significant due to the tradition of a woman becoming a man’s possession after their marriage, though it is significant that there is no male form present in these images.  Marriage between a man and a woman is a way of instilling traditional values and keeping the ruling ideology of heteronormative standards through keeping a nuclear family.

Figure 3 is one of the most well-known Juno Calypso photographs, “A Dream In Green”. One of the most noticeable elements of this image is colour. Referring to the previously mentioned literal objectification of women, the way her body is painted in green suggests a non-human element to her body. The provocative pose and the non-human elements of her body create a performative way of portraying the male gaze. The objectification of her body is easier when removed from a usual setting, creating a male fantasy relating to the idea of a dream as suggested in the title. Another use of colour within this photograph is pink which is often linked to the idea of femininity. With the shape of the heart the portrayal of love shows a juxtaposition of an idealist innocent romance compared to the sexualised female form. Though in a provocative pose Calypso has removed her genitalia from being visible within this image protecting herself from perverse observation. The directional viewpoint of this photograph gives the viewer the power over the subject as the observer as it places the observer in the room with the subject. This plays into the voyeurism of the image; the subject has their back to the camera and no direct mutual eye contact it places the viewer once again in the position of power. The mirrors provide further opportunities for observation, leaving the subject vulnerable to the spectator’s gaze and the fantasy of voyeuristic consumption.

“A Dream in Green” is important in opposing the male gaze. The conventional idea of marriage and romance is deglamourized in this photograph, showing women through the importance of a female point of view that these traditional values are held to degrade women and take away their power of self-expression. Marriage can objectify a woman as a man’s property and mean they are becoming of the scopopholic and promoting a patriarchal unconscious, especially the idea of the taking of female innocence on the wedding night and honeymoon which is a man’s place in society to do. This photograph highlights the issues of this as the performative connotation creates a character that has little self-identity.

Cindy Sherman is a prevalent photographer when it comes to female self-portraiture. Often creating different characters within her imagery, she often tackles the subject of male gaze through her photographs. Figure 4 shows her work from a series of Untitled Film Stills. This image plays into the act of voyeurism without portraying a female nude. The pose is suggestive of a female silhouette undressing behind a curtain, showing the undergarments and even provides an indication of restraint from her wrists, this can be compared to fetishization to do with control, sexualising the female in the image further. This control over viewing a woman relates back to the concept of scopophilia as this photograph takes away the voice of the subject through the pose and the viewers pleasure through watching the subject.  Though not often done in her work, this image of Cindy Sherman conceals the face from the gaze of the viewer. This is interesting due to the nature of the image being that it is showing an act that is often performed in private, this is the intrigue as it suggests that the subject is also unaware of the viewer watching taking even more control from the feminine figure.

 The choice to have this series of images Untitled is interesting due to the message it sends by doing so. It almost separates the images from themselves, portraying the idea that they were previously lost or not owned by anyone. This is a juxtaposition to this image as the control of the gaze implies an ownership between the viewer and the subject. As previously stated, Cindy Shermans self-portraiture displays this hyper femininity to raise awareness of how harmful the habitus can be, this is important due to questioning the expected. This habitus was built over several generations and with this portrait being shot in 1979, the presence of the traditional and outdated clothes in figure 4 draws attention to how the normalcy of the male gaze has been built over time. This photograph is an example of the importance of directly challenging the male gaze through the form of photography, as it can suggest the consequences of the male gaze through the symbolic.

The female photographer Pixy Liao contributes to tackling the heteronormative male gaze in a different way than the aforementioned photographs. In her photographs she gives herself the position of power over her boyfriend in the relationship, and as a Chinese woman she is challenging the habitus that she has learnt to be submissive and give the authority over to her boyfriend as she would in a heteronormative relationship. The performativity of her photographs gives her further control over the message portrayed. With these standards created through a ruling ideology there was a desire to become the opposite of those expectations placed on her from a young age. (Pixy Liao 2019, The Guardian).[17] The performativity of her photographs are highly considered and the context is to challenge heteronormative standards through creating imagery the opposite of the male gaze.

Liao’s series “Experimental Relationship” is a project based around challenging heteronormativity through self-portraiture using herself and her boyfriend [18]. Photographs from this series also present in her exhibition ‘Your Gaze Belongs To Me’ at Fotografiska [19]. Staged in a domestic environment these photographs create a juxtaposition of a relationship dynamic. Fig.5 shows an image in this series ‘Relationships work best when each partner knows their proper place’. The title suggests a classical image showing objectification of women as their place in the household being to look presentable for a man and do household chores. However, the title for this image is referring to the objectification of a man, contradicting Mulvey’s views that a man can’t be sexually objectified, this may be due to changes in the division of labour, ultimately slowly changing the ruling ideology. However, unknowingly in her photographs Liao somewhat proves the theory from the previously mentioned text of decoding advertisements suggesting that a woman can not have a serious career and still be perceived as feminine as in these images she is taking on a masculine character.

 Liao uses narcissistic scopophilia by manipulating her boyfriend into a sexual object for the pleasure of others, artistically reversing the characters parts and taking on the stereotypical role of the male in the situation. This however, can be criticised. By doing this, Liao creates an image of society that switches the power from male to female, whereas the goal of the female gaze is to create equality. It can be argued that by showing the extremity of the male gaze through this contrast it can create awareness from an opposite perspective. It creates a space for a male viewer to analyse this image from what is usually a female perspective, if this can correlate to a negative feeling in a male viewer the connotations of this image may be important to creating change in how people view their own heteronormative relationships. This image shows an example as to why self-portrait photographs produced by females directly opposing the damaging effects of the male gaze are crucial in the progression of societal norms.

It is important to have female photographers that challenge the male gaze, including the heteronormative standards that it has created within the art form. Female realisation of the harmful standards embedded in their “cultural capital” [20] can often make it hard to create work that communicates the effects of male gaze in a non-verbal manner.