As part of the exploration Of visual oppression of women throughout history the authors explore notions by academics of different time periods and schools of thought.The first of said academics is Laura Mulvey with her text 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (1975). In this text she investigated the notion of the female representation subject to the surveyor's gaze.Evans and Gamman come to the conclusion that the oppression of the females through out history is related to the act of being looked at.
The second academic commented was John Berger who agrees with Mulvey's argument but focuses more in the ownership of perspective. He uses European representational painting to explore how capital influences perceptions of gender and roles.This idea is specially evident when the Authors stated that" Power inequalities, deriving chiefly from the economic
and ideological effect of capital, operate to impact on relations
between the sexes and position women as objects and men as subjects".
The third academic Michel Foucault Explores the notion of quote inspecting gaze unquote where individual is responsible for their own oppression and links it to the Panopticon where the prisoners behave in a peaceful way because they feel constantly watched. Foucault argues that this mechanism of self oppression or adherence to certain rules and standards are shared by all of us when we go to work under a timetable or engage in military drills.
One can argue that the origins of this phenomena could be biological, in tradition or even in the cultural context ( given the instances of matriarchal societies through out history in certain parts of the world)
But i believe that it's important to have these ideas in mind when exploring how attraction and the act of looking works in human relationships.
.
The second academic commented was John Berger who agrees with Mulvey's argument but focuses more in the ownership of perspective. He uses European representational painting to explore how capital influences perceptions of gender and roles.This idea is specially evident when the Authors stated that" Power inequalities, deriving chiefly from the economic
and ideological effect of capital, operate to impact on relations
between the sexes and position women as objects and men as subjects".
The third academic Michel Foucault Explores the notion of quote inspecting gaze unquote where individual is responsible for their own oppression and links it to the Panopticon where the prisoners behave in a peaceful way because they feel constantly watched. Foucault argues that this mechanism of self oppression or adherence to certain rules and standards are shared by all of us when we go to work under a timetable or engage in military drills.
One can argue that the origins of this phenomena could be biological, in tradition or even in the cultural context ( given the instances of matriarchal societies through out history in certain parts of the world)
But i believe that it's important to have these ideas in mind when exploring how attraction and the act of looking works in human relationships.
.