"The Gaze" A look into the power of looking in advertisements

Colin Andrews 072324820 CS251-B Word Count: 2002

One of the basic elements of the human condition is that we need to reproduce and need to survive. Where this element of human nature takes on an interesting spin, is in our modern day culture, where we use the basic primal characteristics of sex and reproduction to sell products and services. Whether it is a male or female being objectified, producers of the images seen around us every day, such as magazines or billboards or on our televisions, have a direct agenda in promoting an ideal self while pushing a product of service for nothing more usually than financial gain. A powerful tool used by such producers is selling the idea of the ideal self, and the product that can get you there. Through the usage of the ideal self, advertisements that sell body enhancement products use a very large percentage of ad space depicting woman in a provocative manner, which is labelled as selling with "sex".

Hieronymus Bosch's The Conjurer. While other figur...

Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) was educated a...

Gut Stolpe - Gutshaus

From this notion of sex sells, it leads us to a theory of visual culture known as "the gaze". Much of the focus around the gaze, as highlighted by feminist writer Laura Mulvey, is intended for the viewing pleasure of a dominant male audience [Cartwright and Sturken 76]. The camera is seen as a division of power, and the one who is looking at the person being photographed holds a position of control and judgement. The image that will be analysed in this paper is an image which depicts the gaze very well. It is an ad for 'Nancy Ganz Body Slimmers', contouring spandex sleeves that can allow a woman to control the shapes of her body. The image depicts a young woman around the age of twenty wearing...