Member-only story
Why Female Photographers Still Mimic the Male Gaze
Three years ago, I met a photography student Monika Scherer via Facebook. A mutual friend reposted her note saying that she is looking for girls in the area who would pose for her — she wanted to hone her craft as a photographer and build up a portfolio. I gave the repost a shy like and the rest is history.
We did the first shoot in a forest behind Monika’s house. I have never posed for anyone and when she told me to squinch (a way of tightening your lower eyelids, I believe), I just gawked at her. Despite my initial shyness, we had a lot of fun and became good friends, taking many more pictures together throughout the years.
Right, the pictures. Don’t take me wrong I loved the photographs then and still do now. I particularly appreciate that when I look at them, I don’t recognize myself — rather, I am transformed, a version of myself separate from the person I am in the everyday life. An ethereal being, if you will.
And yet the way I perceive these pictures has changed this spring after I attended a university course on the 70s feminist theory and art. When I look at the photographs now, I see them in a different light: while we thought we were creating a feminine vision of the world, we, in fact, mimicked the gender stereotypes often found in the media surrounding us. Fun stuff like “feminine touch”, “ritualized subordination”, and “licensed withdrawal” (more on that later) have become so ingrained in our society that we have internalised them as posing patterns. Which brings me to the main question of this article: how is it possible that two women come together and despite their best — feminist! — intentions, despite their control of the setting, the camera, and their bodies, recreate what Laura Mulvey, a feminist theorist of the 70s, called “the male gaze”?
Before I answer that question, let me share with you what I have learned about feminism at university this spring. Yes, this means theory. But it will change the way you look at the world, I promise.
Mulvey argued that when visualised, women tend to be portrayed as passive, fragile, and sexualised objects meant to be looked at and, consequently, used by the male spectator, who can be either present or implied (11). Using Freudian terminology, Mulvey explained that this…
