Men Like Naked Women
Social standards and mores regarding sexual behavior have been in place for millennia. Given the historical subjectification of women by men, it is natural to assume that it has been men who have put these rules into place. In modern society, where there is no real authority dictating and enforcing strict rules concerning behavior, the world is ripe for men who wish to explore, impose, and enforce their fantasies. The imposition of the "male gaze" upon women is not young, but has only been given a name in recent times. Evidence of the male gaze in art is described accurately by John Berger in Ways of Seeing, but what kind of ramifications exist concerning portrayals of women, and especially nude women, outside of the world of high art? Certainly, the subject of pornography is a touchy one. Decried by the church as base and vile, limited to its content by the government, and enjoyed by millions each day in print, video, and online, pornography is perhaps the ultimate manifestation of the male gaze. And indeed, it is. Where is the line of demarcation between art and pornography, though? It might be natural to say that paintings that are considered "high art" don't classify as pornography, but that any picture from a girlie
Nude figures still mean the same thing as they did yesterday, the only difference is the presentation and the women themselves. Fetishes, in the sexual realm, are an abnormal fixation on a material object or a non-sexual part of the body that arouses sexual desire and may become necessary for sexual gratification. Although it wasn't the first magazine to cater to the prurient interest, it was the first "acceptable" commercially viable one. She became a victim of the male gaze. Those canvasses are now paper, film, and digital media, and they numbers grow exponentially each day. These pictures frequently portray women being or having been restrained, gagged, blindfolded, and sometimes tortured. The painters who first began to paint nudes in any other representation than a chaste virgin are the plausible originators of fetishism, and the photographers and companies that produce today's fetish material on the internet are certainly not the last. Since then, there have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of magazines that have followed. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States alone, encompassing every realm of media. Even television shows featuring strong women star attractive lead roles. What has changed is the level of acceptance of the objectification of women, but even that can be argued against. However, physical representation is not the defining qualification of how far the male gaze has gotten. " After all, the differences between the full figured women of classical portraiture and the modern centerfold are quite distinct. So if the concept of femininity, at least to the frequent television viewer, has been so limited, where is it headed? Yet, really, has anything changed in the representation of women in the last handful of hundred years? Initially, it is tempting to say "yes. Therefore, it is natural to assume that bondage photographs are currently one of the highest evolutions of the male gaze in society, even though it is limited to a small audience.
Common topics in this essay:
Playboy Enterprises,
Berger Seeing,
,
Marilyn Monroe,
male gaze,
Playboy Magazine,
natural assume,
nude portraiture,
project fantasies,
offering femininity,
women television,
bondage photographs,
naked woman,
man's world,
woman painting,
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Acceptance Essays
