The Gaze and Identity

Workshop III, OUCA501
The Gaze
The gaze is a term which according to Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytical theory 'is the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed.' It is also used to refer to the way in which the audience looks at images of people in many different mediums such as ads. It can also refer to the gaze of the subject of the image.

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist who used Freudian's psychoanalytic theories to create a study called 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', she notes in this essay that Freud refereed to scopophilia- the pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies as objects. She believes that hollywood films are made from the 'male gaze' point of view, representations of women, sex and lifestyles are from the male point of view, man is the 'bearer of the look', many films are followed from the males narrative who is usually the 'hero' of the story.

Scopophilia is used frequently within advertising, it puts the spectator in a voyeuristic position, and when the subject of the image has their eyes closed or covered its as if they don't know you are watching them which makes the image more appealing, especially when the gaze is provocative, as in this American Apparel ad. When the eyes are open but looking away can possibly show that the subject is feeling modest.

However American Apparel also uses a gaze called 'the extra-diagetic gaze' which is a direct gaze, where the subject of the image is staring out they frame, as if at the viewer. This gaze challenges and invites the viewer to look at the subject.

A gaze that is frequently used in contemporary advertising as a selling technique is the 'spectators gaze', which is where the subject of the image is looking at the product within the image how the client wants the customers to look at their product, drawing the viewers attention to the image.

Another gaze is the intra-diegetic gaze, this is where one subject gazes upon the main subject in an image, this helps draw attention to the subject. Usually found in fashion ads to draw attention to products and also makes the viewer feel that if they were to buy the clothes in the ad and wear them they would be the centre of attention. Here Dolce and Gabbana use this gaze in their print ad as they do in many of their campaigns. The first image shows the female subject being in a position of control however the second image shows the female subject in a passive position. As Mulvey states within society the 'pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female'. So maybe the second image is advertising male clothes so wanting to appeal to a male target audience or maybe it is advertising to women and is wanting to portray a feeling of submissive seduction.

These different gazes within visual culture can show us a projected ego that can distort our own sense of ego as it is showing us something we feel is better than ourselves and therefore aspire to be. These gazes can also bring different forms of powers onto the viewer through apparently minor changes within the images art direction.

http://www.americanapparel.net/advertising/


Identitiy
Mulvey's issue of the gaze can relate to identity theories, as the viewer may identify with the photographer/artist or the subject. This can result is our identities being moulded due to modern societies offer a range of social roles, allowing us to choose who we wish or think we are. Michel Foucault is a post modern philosopher who holds this anti-essentialist view, he believes our identities are created due to the discourses available to us such as age, gender, class or nationality. This can be seen when the viewer identifies with the subject in an image, as usually women identify with women such as models and men identify with men such as heroes of films. Foucaults views are similar to Baumans views, who believes that our identities are liquid, in a continual transformation. 

When it comes to brand identities, Baumans theory is very relevant as they must keep up to ever changing medias and technologies. According to Foucault discourses cause identities to develop so when this is applied to brand identities the discourses are the target audience, brand smust mould themselves to suit and appeal to the target audience.

Douglas Kellner believes there are three historical phases of identity (1992), 1) Pre modern identity where personal identity is stable, 2) Modern identity where modern societies begin to offer a wider range of social roles so we can start ‘choosing’ your identity rather than simply being born into it so people begin to ‘worry’ about their identity, 3)
Post-modern identity where we have a ‘fragmented ‘self’ where our identity is constructed.

Brands are becoming more and more


Kellner, D. (Author) Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Post-modern (1992) Routledge, England.

Bauman, Z. (Author) Identity (2004)

Anon (N.D) Micheal Foucalt [Online] http://www.michel-foucault.com/ 

Pinker, S. (Author) The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature(2003) Penguin Books, England.