This week we discussed some really interesting topics in class. Something that really interested me was the concept of the gaze. The gaze refers to interactions within art. The gaze in feminist terms refers to the way men in art look at women in art or even the way a male viewer looks at a woman in a peice of art. Historically men look at women and women look away but pieces like Mannet's Olympia and Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring counter that. The women in these pieces stare back at the viewer boldly. The prostitute in Olympia is so bold as to stare back at the viewer as if he is her client and she is not ashamed of her position.
In photographs by Sally Mann, her use of the gaze makes her photographs powerful. One of her photographs consists of her son and two daughters standing topless. They appear to be staring back at the viewer as if provoking him/her to say something. The confidence they have while topless is almost disturbing.
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