'Part 2: The Gaze' (29/1/2013)

This week we looked at the second part of the presentation on gender in which I took the following notes.

• At the end of this subject we will have a greater understanding of gender representation in games. 
• 'The Gaze' means 'The Look'.
• Referenced an interesting and hugely discussed book 'Ways of Seeing' by John Berger (1972). A man who spoke of the power of relationships. 
• Always balance my own ideas with others. Do they scale or do they conflict? 
• The paintings 'Nell Gwyne by Lely' and 'The Venus of Urbino by Titan' both have women in them in passive positions. These paintings were clearly meant for male buyers in order to show off to males guests in their homes. Not as pornography, but to show they had power and could afford to buy such art. 
• Some older paintings show naked women looking at themselves in mirrors which as a result made them objects of desire.
• Edouard Manet's 'Olympia' caused an uproar as the naked women in the painting is looking directly at the viewer, thus suggesting dominance and lack of coyness, and not looking to the side as was usual (see above). She is also a prostitute and therefore it was frowned upon for a lady of her occupation to be in a picture meant to portray beauty. The public also found it difficult to accept a change and debate about power since she is looking at the audience and therefore becomes a subject and not an object as she is engaging with the audience.
• Berger says "men act and women appear". This is something we still sadly see today. 
• A lot of debate occurred when our lecturer said that many people remember the male characters in past movies for being active, whilst the women were often forgotten as they were just passively viewed.
• Is there sexual imbalance in our world as Laura Mulvey said in her article? I would like to say no, but I think that sadly I would be lying. 
• Could be argued that both women and men are portrayed badly in video games as men can be overly masculine in contrast to the girls who are overly sexualised.  
• Some Hollywood movie actresses were sadly only in older movies to play 'the object' e.g. to be looked at by both actor and audience.
• Scopophilia (literally the desire to see) linked to sexual attraction. 
• Alfred Hitchcock's movies were used as constant examples in this presentation. For example, 'Rear Window' was a recommended watch as the lady who looks after the wheelchair bound photographer is still objectified by looking beautiful.
• In the original 'King Kong' the woman was depicted as weak and completely submissive.
• Whilst some Bond girls are empowered many still end up being weaker than the main hero as he generally over powers them in some way. 
• One interesting example brought up by someone in the group was that even though the class difference between Mario and Peach is very different as one is a plumber and the other a princess Mario still somehow ends up 'on top'.
• 80's action movies were perhaps the most male oriented ones around. However, the female character Ripley in the 'Aliens' franchise is not only depicted as bad ass, but also as a mother figure to Newt the child, her cat and even the male crew. Ripley drives the plot forward regardless of the males who end up needing rescuing. Therefore you could easily say that Ripley is masculine and that the second movie is a great example of gender reversal e.g. tough girl, weak men.
• Sarah Connors from the 'Terminator' franchise and Princess Leia from 'Star Wars' also have masculine moments.
• However, going back to 'Aliens'. The female character Vasquez is almost comically masculine by being overly masculine.

The 'Male Gaze' has three different looks:

• The camera which records the event. 
• The spectator as they watch the final product. 
• The male characters within the screen.

One thing I wanted to touch upon more was the following as I found it very interesting:

The camera removes us from the person e.g. who they truly are, rather than just an object of desire. This is especially so for the prime example he used of Marilyn Monroe as people would always represent her as a sex symbol. She even said once “People have a habit of looking at me as if I’m some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me , they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.” Even though she knew that she was being subjected she decided to stick with it anyway as she felt that they were worse things to be remembered as. 

Overall its a shame that I didn't know about Marilyn Monroe before this lecture, I only knew her as the girl holding down her skirt from an air vent. Therefore I wish to look further into her background as she sounds like a very interesting person. Especially since (and I shared this with my lecturer) her statement drew great similarities to the character Rise Kujikawa from 'Persona 4' as both are idols who are sadly only looked at as images of desire and never for who they are, yet both know this and continue with their careers. Rise even stated in the anime adaptation of the game "The girl everyone makes a big fuss over isn't the real me. Risette the Idol... shes just another packaged product they created to sell. Nobody actually sees the real me...ever.". 

This was an interesting similarity I noticed and therefore wonder if the developers of 'Persona 4' used Marilyn Monroe's life story and quote for research in order to create such a well developed character.  
You can see images of the two characters below.

Referencing:

• Shaw, S (1954) Marilyn Monroe posing during the famous subway grate scene from The Seven Year Itch [Online image]. Available at: http://www.thirteen.org/13pressroom/files/2012/06/Gratescene_SamShaw_6-031.jpg (Accessed: 29/1/2013).
   
• Soejima, S (Unknown) Rise Kujikawa [Online image]. Available at: http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-08/art/p4-rise-kujikawa1.jpg (Accessed: 29/1/2013).