Representations Of Women

Male Gaze, Fashion, Advertising and the Pose

There are now books on the representations of women in the media. These are:

- John Berger's book Ways of Seeing provides an accessible introduction.

- Laura Mulvey's famous essay on the Male Gaze launched an important insight in the field of cinema.

Bechdel test

To pass the test, there must be at least one scene in the film where there are two or more women with no men present, talking about a subject other than men.

Erving Goffman

Erving Goffmann's gender advertisements theory is useful here because he focuses on poses common too magazine advertisements. Goffman points out that commercial photographs involve carefully performed poses presented in advertisements.

Cant and the Recumbent Position

Cant is when women tilt their head at an angle in photographs. Cant is combined with putting a finger in the mouth or touching the face in a child-like way. These poses have become so common in advertisements so we don't notice them. Also, the recumbent position is the name of the laying down position.

The Male Gaze

John Berger says "women watch themselves being looked at". Women learn to look at themselves through the eyes of an imagined man because the ideal spectator is always assumed to be a male. As a result of this, female models in adverts addressed to women 'treat the lens as a substitute for the eye of an imaginary male onlooker'.