The quote above is clearly demonstrated in this image, which consists of a woman sprawled in a seductive manor across a bed. The painting has been done in a way that allows men to enjoy the image without knowing they have been caught, the gaze is never challenged, giving the viewer the permanent ability to look without anyone knowing. When the gaze is returned the viewer is forced to engage with the woman as a person rather than an object. The hand is suggestive and the image has endless connotations, such as the dog on the bed and its relation to loyalty. There is also a sense of vanity, which forms as an insidious joke, and because of this it legitimises that men can look at her, an example of men looking at women, and women being objectified. It is imagery like this that has been repeated into modern cultures using associations particularly within fashion, resulting in an ongoing visual culture even in the 21st century.
Moving onto the second image the ideas of male domination and ‘the gaze’ where these visuals are pushed on you so much they become legitimised and turns into a style. Even though in the image there are men under the same scrutiny, in terms of they are there for people to look at but the connotations of male dominance are even stronger. In turn this evolves into a popular style where people no longer think its sleazy but about a study of beauty. In fact however it is far less innocent and it almost becomes the normal reality of how women are represented.
Imagery like this where women are portrayed as objects creates a system where women are subdued to a giant panopticon, a self regulating culture where women start to worry about their image resulting in surgeries, issues with weight and health because of these problems. Sex starts to become hyperreal where people begin to forget where the boundaries lie within real sex and what they are constantly having thrown in their faces through films, advertising and media.
