Della Calfee. Ass Like That
“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at,” art critic John Berger famously
observed.
Now some feminist artists are turning the tables in the exhibit, Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze:
With a gallery filled with men stripped naked this body of work exposes women’s cheeky, provocative and sometimes shocking commentaries on the opposite sex (which) may make the viewer squirm a little. But that is precisely the point.
The exhibit reveals sundry masculinities from female/feminist/
transgender perspectives, moving from sensuous rear views of the male buttocks to gender-bending to daughters gazing at fathers. Featured artists include Juana Alicia, Nancy Buchanan, Guerrilla Girls on Tour!, Lynn Hershmann, Jill O’Bryan, ORLAN, Carolee Schneemann, Sylvia Sleigh, Annie Sprinkle, Elizabeth Stephens, May Wilson, and Melissa Wolf.
Man as object strikes a pose, buttocks pushed out, offered to us as bedroom eyes shoot a backward glance. Men flex in awkward positions, or bend gracefully into compliant cants. Some men turn submissively into tables.
Others lie down. Natural enough, yet rarely seen in art. Too sensually passive… waiting… vulnerable… or “on the bottom” for mainstream viewing?
The visions can come across as “gay.” Since sexual pose is so often meant for the male gaze, on some unconscious level we may see it all through male eyes. And that is jarring, too.
The camera pleasurably zooms in on erotic man-parts. Images of male autoeroticism and penises abound, including a piece called “Where’s His Head?” that depicts a giant phallus-man fondling his much smaller man-phallus. Indeed! And when Pinocchio tells a lie, it’s not his nose that grows. More like a woody that “lasts more than four hours.” Actual penises are rarely displayed, apparently unable to live up to what Richard Dyer called “the mystique implied by the phallus.”
The exhibit includes a lenticular postcard (turn it one way and it’s a woman, turn the other and it’s a man) that juxtaposes Courbet’s “Origin of the World” with a close-up vagina shot versus ORLAN’s “Origin of War” with a penis close-up.
At times men are objectified in one-dimensional, controlling and demeaning ways. But sex-positive feminist photographer Shiloh McCabe explores the other side, working to ensure that her gaze does not consume or dominate. She takes a wide view, seeing those who are usually not. Her subjects help create their own representation so they can retain their power. “I’m not here to objectify or harm; I’m here to nurture and document,” she explains.
Laura Hartford. Graham Reclining
Man as object, Rubenesque, reclining, bathing, cooking, lounging, washing up before bed. Man as Madonna and Child, patriarchal man, veiled man, man as cowboy bunny, trans man. Blonde man in short shorts. Bodybuilder, Founding Father. Homeless man. Nude and vulnerable. Empowered. Bound and submissive. Striking a pose. Objectified.
So much to gaze at. And so much to see.
“In the past it was totally taboo for women to gaze upon the male, yet it was appropriate and common in the reverse,” observes artist Marian Yap. “Do you think that things are changing?”
Good question. This exhibit pushes us out of our taken for granted ways of seeing to explore that path.
Check out a video on the exhibit here.
Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze. Opening Friday, November 4th at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco and running through the end of November. The show will travel to the Kinsey Institute Gallery, Bloomington, IN and will open April 13, 2012 through the end of June.
This exhibition was created by The Women’s Caucus for Art – the founding organization promoting feminist art and art as activism since 1972.
For more information click here.
Ms. Magazine reposted this piece on their blog October 28, 2011
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I find the idea rather interesting to explore.However , if I would join you in this journey ,I would surprise the viewer by depicting man and women as equal partners, complementing each other in the most utopic jestures and poses. No one is domineering, no one is objectified.
Best wishes to you all!! Rita
Sounds great. Some of the feminist artists did just that. Others wanted to explore the reverse of how women are objectified.
Thanks for blogging about the show…hope you get to see it up close and personal.
I’ll be there for the opening. Looking forward to it!
Tremendous press! Honored to be involved …
It’s a fabulous show!
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I think this is a brilliant Idea. I am definitely going to try to make it this weekend and check it out. This sounds way to interesting to pass up. Men displayed as sex object, hopefully some men and women get the message on how it feels to be degraded and viewed as a piece of meat.
Jacalyn Lopez Garcia’s installation is based on an interactive website http://themanhuntproject.com – check it out – your comments are highly encouraged and we hope you have a chance to see the exhibition. It is fabulous!!
This is a great exhibition; I need it check it out. I really like the concept. It is a thoughtful and provocative statement that makes you think. I was especially disturbed by the thought of “daughters gazing at father’s”. It was a good kind of disturbed because it made me focus on the fact that while it is completely unacceptable for the reverse to happen, it does, and we tend to understand its nastiness while at the same time not being surprised by it. Why is that? I tend to think it is because we (women) are still very much submerged in a culture where women are seen as nothing more than objects there for men’s enjoyment. This exhibition tugs at what we consider “normal” and that is a really good thing. Because while this exhibition may seem shocking, the true shocking reality is how we begin to understand with visual clarity how it is not okay to present the body as an object, or, if you do, you can’t choose only one type of body; everything gets equal exposure. Of course, I have not seen the exhibition (yet) but I think I may find myself walking away with far more sensitivity over the issue I ever thought possible.
It’s a good thing I read the blog post before the month is out, or I would have missed the exhibit!
It truly is an interesting take on imagery to have men displayed as sex objects. The Guerrilla Girls did an in-museum study years ago called “Do Women Have to be Naked to Get in the Metropolitian Museum?” in which they found, of course, that although most of the nudes were women, less than 3% of the artists were women. This is also referenced in one of many books that I think women should read: Cunt, by Inga Muscio.
Another noteworthy moment of man as sex object of which I am reminded is the famous 1989 Diet Coke Commercial, “Diet Coke Break”, in which a group of women ogle a young, muscular, male construction worker. This commercial was one of the most talked-about commercials of its time, because it actually ‘reverses the gaze’ by displaying a male as a sex object. Moreover, it shows a group of women as sexual beings, united in their sexuality and desire. Quite the reversal of the typical imagery.
This is a new twist to how people look at men. As a woman I have been sought out for and looked at with a gaze. Men tend to look at you and then they mindlessly gaze either at my chest or down below to my booty. Women have been the apple of the eye in men but when have we (women) had a chance to gaze and look at men? This is definitely a good idea for the sake of this society, in which guys are not as comfortable talking or looking at other guys in that way. Men have such a masculine way of thinking, but if they changed the way they look at things they can eventually comprehend more about the male body and in the long run better themselves.
There should be more of this. Since when are men really portrayed as objects of sexual desire? Yes, there are many pics of ripped men showing off their torsos, but firstly the man must be MUSCLY. How often are average sized men portrayed this way? And why are thin women erotic but not thin men? I think the fact that male fashion tends to cover up a lot of the male body (with the exception of having the freedom of having to go shirtless, which is actually due to breast fetishism) means that women find the nude male body awkward, while the female nude is the image of sex.
Of course, women encounter the same problem. The women who are portrayed as most sexy are starving, have had surgery, and are airbrushed. Few women look like them (or SHOULD look like them). But this leaves most women feeling no sexier than you as a man do in a culture that focuses on oddly shaped females as the ideal. (Almost all women in our culture have poor body image.)