Perception of Females
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by chosen
The society we live in has a clear perception on how females should look like to be accepted by the society. However Suicidegirls try to change the gaze of the society.
Suicidegirls is a site that goes against the normal pornographic sites. Women have been presented as an object on these pornographic sites, but suicidegirls attempts to change the perception of women just being an object. The site allows the girls to write and communicate with users, able to show what they consider beauty and show they also have brains.
The gaze laid upon females is very important and plays a vital role in how females are portrayed. The reading suggested Mulvey’s ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ theory of women being looked at and displayed at the same time. This voyeuristic gaze has been encouraged by the way female figures are shot in films. The position of the camera takes on the masculine position which is that males are the active onlookers while the females are the passive object to be looked upon. Films also adopted the concept of scopophilia, which is a concept “Freud associated with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze”. (Mulvey, 1990) The concept of scopophilia has been made a part of our society, which suicidegirls are trying to change. By altering the type of gaze laid upon the suicidegirls models, they are in control of the gaze laid upon them theoretically.
But even if they can control where the gaze of the ‘active’ viewer can look at, it still does not change the fact that the models can still be looked at as objects. I feel that it would be impossible for models showing their body on the internet can avoid being objectified, as one cannot control the way the active gazer views the model no matter how the photo has been taken, or whose hands the camera was in.
Suicidegirls is a site that goes against the normal pornographic sites. Women have been presented as an object on these pornographic sites, but suicidegirls attempts to change the perception of women just being an object. The site allows the girls to write and communicate with users, able to show what they consider beauty and show they also have brains.
The gaze laid upon females is very important and plays a vital role in how females are portrayed. The reading suggested Mulvey’s ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ theory of women being looked at and displayed at the same time. This voyeuristic gaze has been encouraged by the way female figures are shot in films. The position of the camera takes on the masculine position which is that males are the active onlookers while the females are the passive object to be looked upon. Films also adopted the concept of scopophilia, which is a concept “Freud associated with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze”. (Mulvey, 1990) The concept of scopophilia has been made a part of our society, which suicidegirls are trying to change. By altering the type of gaze laid upon the suicidegirls models, they are in control of the gaze laid upon them theoretically.
But even if they can control where the gaze of the ‘active’ viewer can look at, it still does not change the fact that the models can still be looked at as objects. I feel that it would be impossible for models showing their body on the internet can avoid being objectified, as one cannot control the way the active gazer views the model no matter how the photo has been taken, or whose hands the camera was in.