Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Guy Bourdin

Speaking of the Male Gaze, these are some photos from Guy Bourdin. He was a French photographer who shot for Vogue as well as Charles Joudan's shoes. Notice how the legs are completely disembodied. I believe that these two are from his shoe campaigns, which would seem to strip these female appendages of even more meaning. The legs are simply exhibited so to sell the comodity which they display. I love the bright colors.

And this one below is a very interesting take on the question of blood. Highly styalized - almost cosmetic.

The Drive Through Strip-Club

This is actually in Pittsburgh. You drive up to a little diamond window (see below) and apparently watch whatever stripper is performing on stage inside.


Last week I was trying to articulate to Michael why I'm so interested in stripclubs and peepshows - I think it has something to do with the male gaze that Kendra posted about. The peepshow both heightens and demonstrates the act of viewing, makes it more illicit. It is not voyeurism because the object of desire is aware of the viewer. It is a complicit relationship between the object and the observer. How can we make our audience feel complicit in the action, yet alienated from it?

Also, think about Act Three, in which there are several layers of observation. Alwa oogles Lulu during their tryst. Rodrigo and Geschwitz spy on Lulu and Alwa. Schoning watches Rodrigo and Geschwitz spying. And we as the audiece watch Schoning watch Rodrigo and Geschwits watch Lulu and Alwa.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Glee's Lea Michele in Marie Claire UK

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/celebrity/pictures/29545/14/lea-michele-glee-marie-claire-november-cover-shoot.html#stop

This photo in particular:

Is a little bit of what I imagine the painting of Lulu could be. Dr Goll is into Lulu's dancing and also likes the little girl thing- just flatten the boots and make them, the tutu and the hot pants pink. The whole spread reads, to me, uncomfortably little-girl-playing-at-sexy. Maybe that's me putting my "Rachel from Glee" baggage on the adult actress? I'm also a little distressed at how thin she looks. She lost a lot of weight between the first and second season of Glee, presumably to fit in in Hollywood. It's just another way women- real actual human women- need to work really hard to appear as the idealized image of woman.

The 4th image in the slide show also strikes me. Her face, the high angle, the rope in the background, and her pose all put us, the viewer, in a position of power. We, the viewer, are about to do violence to her. Sexy, sexy violence. It plays into the old tropes of sex as something that harms women, how hot it is to degrade women and "take" them sexually, and that penetration = domination.