The Body Revealed
Sexual modesty
- biblical ideals of modesty
- concealment and modesty also can function to arouse sexual passion
- all clothing is erotic
Around 14th c. tight clothing began to surface, this could be for arousal purposes
Fashion highlights the parts of the body that we find sexually arousing at that period of time
the toilet of venus
Dishevelment of clothing ca be seen as fashionable and perhaps erotic...clothes getting taken off or perhaps just being put back on
1670's was a promiscuous period
by Robert Herrick
| A SWEET disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness : A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction : An erring lace which here and there Enthrals the crimson stomacher : A cuff neglectful, and thereby Ribbons to flow confusedly : A winning wave (deserving note) In the tempestuous petticoat : A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility : Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part |
by concealing the body clothing can excite sexual curiosity and create in the viewer the desire to remove them
Freud- Interpretation of dreams-fetishism
Freud's theories related to human sexuality
he's concepts
voyeurism = looking->viewing something you shouldn't "peephole"
Narcissism =love of the self or things that look/relate to it
Fetishism = falling in love with an object perhaps one that symbolizes a person---> shoe fetish, shoes are sexual and represent the putting on one thing into another
Flugel- The psychology of clothes 1930
- applies Freud's ideas of fashion
- sees fashion as displacement
=an unconscious conflict between
- 'modesty'- chastity
- 'exhibitionism' - eroticism
evening dresses and 'decolletage' 19th c. were frivolous low necklines showing off of shoulders
In the case of exhibitionism desires connected with self-displaying a particularly easy form of converion may be found in a change from...(find ED notes)
The Gaze
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is related to power and control
1973 laura Mulvey: "visual pleasure and narrative cinema", examines how women are portrayed in film applying the theory of scopophilla she argues that in hollywood the 'pleasure of looking' is determined by the 'male gaze'
cinema makes 'you' (the viewer)like the 'camera' you don't have the choice of were you look
The Cinematic Gaze
- gazing is a constitutive activity of the cinema
- the existed for the male gaze
The gaze is a key area in visual culture studies
-sexual difference is produced not a natural order
men+ gazing=active
women+ reclining= passive
- The gaze is a way of 'controlling'
- the gaze is about master and power, not just looking
- the gaze objectifies the body
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