By Naomi (yr13)

Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of ‘the male gaze’ in relation to visual arts being structured around a masculine viewer. It has created a world where everything is seen from a heterosexual man’s perspective – women being the primary victims of this mentality.

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, defines ‘the male gaze’ as, “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” This arrangement of viewership is presented in Lely’s Venus (Aphrodite), “a Hellenistic marble statue of the crouching Venus type.”[1] Aphrodite could be seen as vulnerable and attempting to cover her exposed body with a nervous watch of any intruders. Yet the nonchalant air of her draping hand and the slightly provocative angling of one hip downwards suggests otherwise (a tighter foetal crouch would provide far better concealment).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lely_Venus

This statue has a dominating presence in the centre of Room 23 at The British Museum; you cannot draw your eyes away from each curve of her shape or stop yourself walking slowly around her expressive figure. Similar to many other Hellenistic statues, Lely’s Venus is designed to create interplay with the artwork and the voyeuristic viewer. Each angle reveals another aspect of her body but nothing actually desirable or intimate ever becomes visible. Aphrodite’s turned head seems to follow you as you gaze at her bare form. Some may feel guilty about her potentially vulnerable position but others view it as an invitation, Aphrodite knows she is beautiful and she is not afraid to tease men into looking at her.

Aphrodite of Knidos is another female nude statue which attracts ‘the male gaze’. As this was the first credited life-size statue of a nude female, Aphrodite of Knidos attracted somewhat of a celebrity status. Her first appearance led to initial rejections in favour of clothed alternatives but by 5CE the statue was said to be in the royal collection in Constantinople. Praxiteles’ creation went on to be emblazoned as an emblem of Knidos.

The narrative for this Aphrodite is again slightly ambiguous. It is commonly accepted that she is stripping for a bath but her pose leaves us questioning more than just her location.

Before Aphrodite of Knidos, female statues presented occasional suggestions of contours but they were always covered, even if it was just a soft drapery (Lady of Auxerre, 640-20BCE, is an example of a woman whose breasts are so detailed that you could easily think her a nude statue if it was not for the features of a belt or skirt hem). Rather than just depicting a female nude, Praxiteles presents a woman who wants her audience to know that she could be dressed but she actively chooses not to be. It may seem far-fetched to give this statue a sense of autonomy, but for many Aphrodite represents a progressive representation of women taking control of how their bodies are viewed. However the creator of this statue was a man. It was not a woman making a statement about her body; it was a man sculpting a woman’s body how he sees it and how other men should like to see it. One feels less voyeuristic and intrusive when looking at Aphrodite of Knidos because she chooses to be nude, unlike Lely’s Venus. The idea of consent, from just looking at another person to the very act of sex, is continually affected by ambiguity (Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines is a perfect example of this). It is unclear as to whether Aphrodite’s hands are covering her vagina in modesty or deliberately drawing our attention to the area. The Capitoline Venus and Medici Venus are two statues of Aphrodite that have both reversed the positioning of the arms, creating a paradoxically more defensive yet more revealing stance.

Aphrodite continues to be upheld as an icon of beauty even though our body image ideals have massively changed over the centuries. Thigh gaps, cheekbones, and flat stomachs are the features that most 21st Century women aspire to achieve (often with the tragic price of anorexia and body dysmorphia). Knidos’ emblem promoted the other side of the body image spectrum with her closed thighs, round face, and plump curves. One artist, Vermeer, used Barbie dolls (infamous for their unrealistic expectations of young girls’ appearances) to illustrate this contrast of ideals.

Barbie De Milo is part of a collection of parodied artworks that highlight how the ‘male gaze’ is constantly changing to look for something else in women. Some have argued for the banning of female nudes because of the way they present women as objects to admire. Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous feminist artists, campaign against the unequal ratio of female artists to female nudes in museums, such as the Metropolitan. Although we can see the women depicted as beautiful and celebrated, it is important not to lose sight of who created them, who they were created for, and what effects they have on the view we have of ourselves.

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