-5 bullet points explaining the main thrust of your argument
-Your chosen methodical approach
-At least 5 texts (referenced using Harvard) that you think will be useful for this essay, with a comment next to each explaining why
-A j.peg of an image that you may/could discuss in the essay, again, briefly stating why
For my essay I have chosen the topic of the gaze and psychoanalysis as it interest me the most and i want to find out more about it. I also wanted to link these to today and how this affects women. Therefore my question I have come up with I got by using a quote on the gaze and psychoanalysis handout from the lecture. My title is:
'Women exist as 'sexual' objects only to be looked at.' Does this statement apply to modern media?
In my essay i will look at how women were perceived in the past (through paintings/pinnups) how this changed and then how it has changed back again, now in modern media. Who is driving this change, male or female? I am also looking at quite a few theorists to back up what I am saying. My plan for the essay is to go through each of my theorists first, John Berger, Laura Mulvey and Rosalind Coward, then to apply this theory to examples (analysing in depth), then my conclusion.
Texts I am going to use:
-Berger, J (2008) Ways of Seeing, 2nd Edition, London: Penguin Books Ltd.
I'm using this book as one of the essays in it is very appropriate. It talks a lot about how women are represented in paintings. Berger believes that the western world objectifies the nude women and how these ideals have been carried on into todays society.
-Mulvey, L, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford UP: p.833-44
This text carries on fluidly from Berger as Mulvey talks about these ideals in todays society, in modern media, with the male as the observer and the female as the object.
-Coward, R, (1985) Female Desire and Sexual Identity, In: Diaz-Diocartz, M & Zavala, Women Feminist Identity and Society in the 1980's. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co, pp.25-36
Coward talks here, about desire and how we as humans are driven by pleasure. Desire is driven by pleasure and the constant promise of perfection. Coward looks at how this affects women
-Walter, N (2010) Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, London: Virago press.
This is a book that I found in the library at college, the title dragged me to it at first and whilst I had the book out I couldn't put it down. Really interesting view on how men aren't driving this way of seeing women but women are. Contains some interviews with women that are looked at for a living, about how they got into what they do and why they do it.
-Miriam O'Reilly wins Countryfile ageism claim, BBC NEWS: Entertainment & Arts [online] Available at:
This article is really interesting as my essay question is 'Women exist as sexual object only to be looked at' Does this statement apply to modern media? and this pretty much proves it as O'Reilly was fired for being too old and as when the program went in to HD you'd be able to see her wrinkles apparently.
An image you could discuss:
As I am looking at the gaze as well, an image that I could talk about is Degas' painting Le Viol (The Rape) (1869). This painting shows the intra-diagetic gaze, which means another person in an image looking at another person in the image. In this painting the man looks across the room at the young girl the way she is facing and is stood shows that she hasn't noticed him stood there. The painting makes you feel bad as you know what is going to happen but you don't feel guilty, as you're not doing anything wrong as the viewer.
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