Mad Men by Mary OKereke

This essay will be analysing the television programme ‘Mad Men’ using feminism theories, I will also be using ‘the gaze’ of the female gender.

Feminism was founded on the beliefs of Emily Davison who felt they had equal rights to men instead of being suppressed and objectified, making a stand for she knew her rights.

The movement focused on gaining the vote for the female public through the Suffragette movements. Emily joined the social and political union founded by Emmeline Pankhurst then given three years she came up with the courage to quit her job as a full time teacher and went in full time as a full time for the suffragette movement group. In joining the group it gave Emily Davison an instant criminal record from acts of causing violent public disturbance in the community, which she attend prison ceils quite frequently.

The group used a lot of crazy tactics such as starving them selves burning things just to get attention, In 1963 Emily Davisono jump in front of the King's horse which later on caused her early death. Because of what Emily Davison had done in 1918 women who owned houses and were over 30 were allowed to vote, because of her act of movement this was also changed in 1928 to allow women over 21 to vote legally in England.

“Davison was a militant suffragette who died after throwing herself in front of the king's horse at the Epsom Derby.”

For many hundreds of years, women have strived for equality having been held back from there opportunities that would have taking them far in there career those opportunities was taken away from them because of the fact that they were women which in my understanding that’s just ridiculous.

I believe that women have every right to be equal with men, which I think feminism has accomplished this in every way.

“Feminism is a good venue for getting yourself across as much as for getting your point across.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Feminism has help, woman with families around the world it allow themothers, daughters, and sisters in the world to have an equal opportunities to have a say in life to achieve all there dreams on what kind of careers and businesses that they never were able to have before without any discrimination because they are females.

As humans we are equal to others around the world it really doesn’t matter if you are male or female.

“Claims the right of all people on this earth to the same matierial and cultural well being”

Because of feminism Woman now have power in government and they hold high powerful jobs. They have gained their independence, which I call it, independent women with equal power,

“Women are still marginalized and exploited in many ways around the world and feminism should address these issues aggressively. The feminist movement should advocate and work for the breaking of glass ceiling for women in the existing social, economic, religious and political structures.”

Women gained a lot of access to jobs during the world war two which at that time a lot of men didn’t approve of women working alongside with them. Even by the 60s, things seemed simpler considering women being still discriminated against to in the working environment and seen as inferior to the male employers.A  programme called 'Mad Men' screen in the states  has a lot of reasons to love this show, among which are the style and fashion of the characters the series illustrates that Today there is still inequality in the workplace with regards to salaries, status at a job and maternity leave, though of course it is illegal for employers to discriminate still. Woman are encouraged to dress and act to impress their bosses and never being promoted above receptionists and typists or even PR these can even lead to being dedicated for the company and still the women would not be promoted.

“The men wear suits, the women wear dresses, and no one is looking especially happy”

“Feminism is a program for making different beings -- men and women -- turn out alike, and ... it must do a good deal of chopping to fit the real world into its ideal.”

MICHAEL LEVIN, Feminism and Freedom

“We need a new kind of feminism, one that stresses personal responsibility and is open to art and sex in all their dark, unconsoling mysteries.”

CAMILLE PAGLIA, intro, Sex, Art, and American Culture

“The first principle of full feminism is the simple equality of men and women. And it is an erroneous principle. For here nature steps in and forbids its achievement.”

CORREA MOYLAN WALSH, Feminism

“Feminism was recognized by the average man as a conflict in which it was impossible for a man, as a chivalrous gentleman ... as a highly evolved citizen of a highly civilized community, to refuse the claim of this better half to self-determination.”

WYNDHAM LEWIS, "The Family and Feminism," The Art of Being Ruled

“As a metaphor for self-transformation . . . [‘finding a voice’] . . . has been especially relevant for groups of women who have previously never had a public voice, woman who are speaking and writing for the first time, including many women of colour”

Because of one group feminism has formed several different groups, which is known as the Feminist theories the Liberal, Marxist, Redical and post-modern feminisms.

The Liberal feminists is about justice between gender issues and identity it’s also the modern form of feminism, known for the belief that all women around the world have power to achieve anything.

“Some people believe that, no matter what your environment or behaviour, and no matter what your body looks like now, "Whichever gender the doctors said you were when you were born, that's what you'll always be". ("Biology is destiny".) Others believe, again irrespective of upbringing, that some "essence" of "masculinity" or "femininity" can occupy any kind of physical body.”

Postmodernism Feminism began somewhere in the early 1980s with the term post-feminism It rejects the idea that there is one true equal rights view of the world. The women Feminists argue that no one, including other women, may speak for all women. However they mostly argue that all women in the world should have the opportunity to become herself in every right way.

“Modern feminism worked with the existentialist view on women which establishes the argument that “one is not born a woman, but becomes one" and thus here the focus is on the social and cultural construction of women by the system.”

Article by Sanjay Nair

“According to the thinking that originates in post modern feminism "woman" is a debatable category, complicated by class, ethnicity, sexuality, and other facets of identity and therefore gender is performative based on our natural heterosexuality rather than socially or culturally constructed.”

Article by Sanjay Nair

“ feminist critics who argue that theories of both modern postmodern have been organized around masculine norm and pay insufficient attention to the specificity of women’s lives and experiences.”

Rita felski

Radical feminist argue that women are the system of domination in which the men as one group have power over women as a group

“Radical feminism opposes patriarchy, not men. To equate radical feminism to man-hating is to assume that patriarchy and men are inseparable, philosophically and politically.”

Marxist feminists generally see women as a class and argue that women are, like the society. Modern Marxist feminists often view the traditional roles adopted by women as one unproductive in that being of women which is about the production of people, rather than the production of money and all valuable goods.

“A theory of ideology presupposes a theory of the social and this theory, which informs Hennessy's critical reading of postmodern theories of the subject, discourse, positionality, language, etc., is what she calls a "global analytic" which, in light of her references to multinational capitalism, the international division of labor, overdetermined economic, political and cultural practices, etc, is at the very least a kind of postmodern Marxism.”

1998 KRISTIN SWITALA.

“Contemporary Marxists Feminists, as I have seen it, don't usually

deal directly with reproductive or sexual concerns, i.e.

contraception, sterilization, abortion, pornography,

prostitution, sexual harassment, rape, and woman battering, like,

say a radical feminist might.”

Bibliography:

Books-

 John. S, Feminism, Gender And Sexuality pg105 chapter 7, Fourth Edition, viewed 10th April2012, Retrieved from Cultural Theory and Popular Culture

John. S, Feminism, Gender And Sexuality pg136 chapter 7, Fifth Edition, viewed 10th April2012, Retrieved from Cultural Theory and Popular Culture

Rita.F,Modernity and Feminsm, pg 15,viewed 10th April 2012,Retrieved form The Gender Of Modernity

Documentaries-

Born1872-1913, Emily Davison - BBC History, viewed 5th April 2012, retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/davison_emily.shtml

Websites-

Elizabeth W, Feminism , viewed 12th April 2012, retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/feminism.html

Unknown, Feminism , viewed 12th April 2012, retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/feminism.html

Unknown, Feminism Quotes , Feminism, viewed 12 April 2012, retrieved from http://www.notable-quotes.com/f/feminism_quotes.html

Kristin.S Feminism Quotes , Feminism, viewed 12 April 2012, retrieved from http://www.notable-quotes.com/f/feminism_quotes.html

Kelly .W, Mad Men Season 5 Photos Show The Cast Dressed To Impress ,viewed 11th April 2012, retrieved from http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Mad-Men-Season-5-Photos-Show-Cast-Dressed-Impress-40417.html

Sanjay . N ,The Rise of Women hood, Feminism and the final wave,11 April 2012 , Retrieved from http://www.rise-of-womanhood.org/feminism.html

Karishma.J,The Rise of Women hood, Liberal feminism,11 April 2012 , Retrieved http://www.rise-of-womanhood.org/liberal-feminism.html

Sanjay N,The Rise of Women hood, Postmodern feminism,11 April 2012 , Retrieved http://www.rise-of-womanhood.org/Postmodern-feminism.html

Jennifer.M,Uncharted worlds , Gender Questions ,15th April 2012 , Retrieved

http://www.uncharted-worlds.org/gender/genderq.htm

Jone .L,Women History,Radical Feminism ,16 th April 2012,Retrieved

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/g/radicalfeminism.htm

Martha.G, "Marxist Feminism / Materialist Feminism",viewed16th April 2012,Retrievedhttp://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/mar.html

High Fashion and Perfume advertisements by Tilly Lasseter

For this section of our collaborative blog I will be discussing High Fashion and Perfume advertisements found in magazines from a psychoanalytical view point.

I will be focusing on such psychoanalytical theories, as The Gaze, The Mirror stage, and The Ego and how they can be related with in this media form. 

We are subjected to high end Fashion and perfume advertisements everyday, be it subconsciously or whether we are aware of it, and through many difference medias, either way it has a great impact on todays society. 

Fashion and perfume can be an expression of  ones identity, the clothes themselves that we cover up in for public display. In advertising not only the products themselves, are being sold to us, but the perfect image it portrays, giving an attractive and desirable but to most, an unachievable goal. At first glance, there is little difference between these fashion logos, but what sets a high end fashion advertisement apart, giving it its identity, is the artistic qualities used when creating the images. There are many different techniques advertisers use when it comes to this, and a lot depends on the way the image is viewed, it has to be affective, and there is no other way of doing so with out considering these following theories. 

The Mirror Stage is a psychoanalytical theory discussed by Jacques Lacan, This critical reinterpretation of Freud's work, proposes that when an infant passes through the mirror stage, they begin to recognise themselves as an object that can be viewed by others, and gain an understanding of themselves and their body in relation to other objects around them. 

This development stage was first stated by Lacan (1936) as cited by BENVENUTO.B and KENNEDY.R (1986), and was said to occur between the ages of six to eighteen months of an infants life. In July 1949 this initial idea had evolved, suggesting that this theory was not just apparent between the ages of six to eighteen months but much further on in life, subconsciously effecting the subjects adult life. This links to the Ideal I and the ego. As soon as the subject recognises themselves in the mirror, they see their reflection as a separate ideal version of themselves. Freud has said that as soon as this mirror stage begins and from then on, the reflection in the mirror will have triggered a response resulting in the subject constantly striving for this perfect version of him/herself, the ideal I. The thought that your present self will not get you to where you want to be as it is, is what drives us.

There are in general two types of 'looks' with in an advertisement, the "Demand" and the "Offer". This refers to where the subject in the advert is looking, whether it be directly at the camera or not. Those that look at the camera and therefore directly at the viewer, are demanding the product to be purchased, where as when the subjects look in the advert is not into the camera, the product is being offered to the viewer, suggesting they buy it. 

The act of looking is not a neutral action and people experience different emotions and effects as a result, when it comes to women's advertisements, they are aimed at the female audience but also male, although the way they are viewed by both, is very different. From a mans perspective, these adverts are an extension of the male gaze at women on the street. Men judge and make advances, and as a result women walk hurriedly past, unable to return such a critical view and often feeling embarrassed. Adverts in comparison to this, give men the opportunity to look all they want, and these women return the look. "Those fantasy women stare off the walls with a look of urgent availability" 

In todays society desirability is seen as an important aspect of a sexual relationship, women have become more obsessed with appearances and the notion that this is how men will form their opinions of them, based on the visual impact and thinking these ideas of self image and the promise that achieving this ideal image leads to security. Perhaps this is the link to a woman's fascination of high end fashion advertisements. 

The story of Narcissus, a boy who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, has also previously been a term used to explain this female adoration of images, as slightly limited a view as this may be now, there are aspects of this that we can still relate to, for example it is often said that instead of looking upon these adverts as desirable and in a critical manner, and although they do the same critical analysis of themselves and their own bodies, they can also relate to the women in them and can draw similarities between them, almost as if the advert is a reflection.

Similarly, Judith Williamson suggests (1978) as cited by HOLMES. M (n.d), that the audience is the 'creator of meaning', assuming the advert is connecting with us.  

These advertisements I have chosen to look closely at, demonstrate Lacan's idea of Narcism, but also explore the idea that women still find criticisms with in them, and how the artistic qualities used to sell and attract us to these products, also cause women to over analyse and desire a sometimes un achievable image. There are many ways that advertisements achieve this, through artistic qualities like composition, colour and other techniques.

For example, looking at the Givenchy advert, the composition and angle is structured and put together well. Being stood in the middle of the stairway, represents a powerful image.

The Gaze and power within advertising are closely linked. The person who is doing the looking, generally is said to have the power over the viewed subject.

Although the woman in this advert is looking at the viewer, (creating power as said above), the viewer, in particular the male viewer will hold some form of power. This is created due to the idea that the viewer cannot be seen whilst admiring this image. 

In "Practices of Looking" by STURKEN.M and CARTWRIGHT.L it discusses this idea of power and refers to the theories of Michel Foucault and his well known description of the Panopticon, in his 1975 work "Discipline and Punish". 

In this study, it talks of how this well thought out prison structure was the reason for implementing this powerful inspective gaze. 

This carefully designed structure, included a tower block that looked and could hear over all prisoners and prison cells, and in return, prisoners could not see or hear from the tower, whether the guard was there or not. 

This not knowing of the guards presence or absence made it impossible for the prisoners not to imagine being watched, even when the tower was infect empty. 

This form of observation seemed to work in controlling the behaviour of the guards, they started to act as if being watched at all times, under a relentless gaze. 

This idea of power and looking with out being watched also links to film and cinema. The conditions in which we watch a film are dark and the viewer will experience the feeling of it being just them and the screen. 

Her facial expression, partly covered by her hair and eye mask, suggests not giving everything away to the audience, this also links to the dramatic use of light and the name of the product itself meaning angel or demon. This gives the overall image a sense of secrecy. 

This image of perfection is desirable to the reader, perhaps because subconsciously it provokes "an anxiety, rather than a pleasurable identification" THOMAS.J (2001) p.37 

This emotion the reader then has with the image, does not portray one of narcissism but instead of criticism, resulting in the reader feeling they need this product to achieve this sometimes un obtainable perfection. 

In comparison to this, Channel No.5 took a different approach, attempting to relate to the audience. Catherine Deneuve, in this 1975 advert and the bottle of perfume in the right hand corner have no direct link other than juxtaposition. Looking back at Williamson's argument, she states that the audience will make an assumption of the link between them. "The face and the bottle are not inherently connected: there is no link between Catherine Deneuve's in herself and Chanel No.5: but the link is in terms of what Catherine Deneuve's face means to us, for this is what Chanel No.5 is trying to mean to us, too." (1978) as cited by HOMES.M (n.d) 

The reader makes the connection between the women in these advertisement, elegant, successful and beautiful, and the product. 

Women are in pursuit of this Ideal I and these images acting like a mirror, are all the persuasion needed to buy. This results in women feeling they must have the product, that their life style resembles that of the women in the advert and they should really already own this product. 

All techniques and theories used to sell advertisements are very effective. Women and men are both subject to them whether being due to a feeling of criticism, and the reassurance she will achieve this desirability as a result of buying the product, or whether the reader can relate to them and feels she already owns this lifestyle and therefore should buy the product she deserves. 

Bibliography 

HOLMES.M (n.d), Creating Meaning in Images: A Discussion of Judith Williamson's 'Decoding Advertisements' [WWW] Available from:http://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cndls/applications/postertool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=1769. Accessed [15.04.2012]

THOMAS.J (2001), The Look. In:THOMAS.J (ed.) Readers in Cultural Criticism, Reading Images. Palgrave.

BENVENUTO.B and KENNEDY.R (1986), The Mirror Stage. In: The Works Of Jacques Lacan. An Introduction. 

STURKEN.M and CARTWRIGHT.L STURNEN.M, CARTWRIGHT.L (2000), Modernity: Spectatorship, power, and knowledge. In: Practices Of Looking, An Introduction to Visual Cultures.Oxford. pp105-108

SELLS.P and GONZALEZ.S (n.d), The Language of Advertising: Demand and Offer.  [WWW] Available from http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_12/demand_offer.htm.Accessed [21.04.2012] 

Psychoanalysis, ‘the Gaze’ and visuality by Keira F

Salvador Dali’s ‘Spellbound’, a psychological mystery thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945 nominated for a best picture Academy award. The film opens with Shakespear’s proverb – ‘The fault….. Is not in our stars, but in ourselves…..’

Hitchcock quotes, ‘I wanted the dream sequence to be shot in the sunshine so that the camera man would be forced, to what we call ‘Stop death’ and get a very hard image, this was again the avoidance of the clech’e; All dreams in movies are blurred, it isn’t true ! Dali was the best man for me to do the dream, because that’s what dreams should be.’

According to Anna.O, 'The year 1944 was a very productive one for Dalí. He designed advertising images for the

stocking manufacturer Bryans, for perfume, lipstick and other products for Elsa Schiaparelli,

and for McCurrach ties; he contributed articles and illustrations to a number of magazines, and

in June published his only novel, Hidden Faces. At the end of the summer he signed the contract

that resulted in his creating the dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock’s filmSpellbound, which

premiered in 1945.'

Hitchock described ‘Spellbound’ as “Just another manhunt story wrapped up in pdeuda-psychoanalyis.

Back in the 40’, Hollywood great faith in Freudian psychology and created several movies (such as ‘The Dark Mirror’ and ‘Posessed’) where psychology was used to explain away character motivations in painfully obvious terms.

Many reviews for Spellbound, introduce the female figure, ‘Dr. Constance Peterson as ‘She’, this singling her presence put, keeping intrigue towards symbolism and her relationship with the protagonist, ‘the patient’. ‘She’, who would seem an obvious leading metaphor for what we are learning about this man’s subconscious.

The plot of ‘spellbound’- psychiatrist Dr. Edwards, becomes catatonic when he sees vertical lined. What causes this condition? And why is he suffering from amnesia?  The head of psychiatry, but doubts about his own identity soon begin to surface; he panics during a surgery he must be escorted out of the operating room. Imposter? He confides in her that he may have murdered the real Dr.

She falls for his charms and so tried to help him discover his real self. She believes that he is innocent and suffering from a guilt complex. They travel to Rochester to meet Dr. Brulov. They analyse a dream that he had and so everything unfolds.

References:

Anna.O, ‘Dalinian studies’[Online],available at:

http://www.salvador-dali.org/media/upload//pdf//TigresENG16Feb2010_noticies_en_home_119.pdf(Accessed 20^th April 2012)

David.s, ‘Images Journal’, [online]available at : http://www.imagesjournal.com/2002/reviews/spellbound/  ,(Accessed 19^thApril 2012)

Spellbound’ features a famous dream sequence designed by Dali that includes some astonishing images such as,

huge floating eyes, twisted landscapes, a faceless man in a tuxedo dropping a wheel, blank playing cards and wings.

From Avia.V's dream interpretations -
Eyes
‘The dream meaning of eyes deals with perception. Eyes interpret light, and so when we dream of them we’re dealing with a greater vision, illumination, enlightenment, understanding and even our concept of reality. Injured eyes may indicate we’re not seeing the facts clearly, or we’re simply unable to face certain truths at this time.

This relates to Hitchcock’s ‘spellbound dream sequence’ almost perfectly .One of the first scenes in the sequence is described to be in some sort of gambling house with no walls but a load of curtains with eyes painted on them. Taking into account the plot of the build up toward this very scene’ The protagonist is describing his search for his lost identity and by doing this, begins with describing a room with the many watchful eyes from his dream and then speaks of a man walking around with a large pair of scissors cutting all of them in half. This could almost most definitely be indicating towards his ‘guilty conscience’ over his uncertainty for murdering someone.

The Closed eyes may either indicate surrender to a situation (leaving it to faith) or choosing avoidance over action. Eye colour in dreams is subject to your interpretation too. Eye patches suggests perception is marred, not all the facts are known, and it might be time to explore all the details.

In Dreaming the meaning of eyes indicates an opening into a new dimension. This is symbolic of your vision clearing and focusing in on a new direction. It may also indicate your ability to see past what is common and spiritually arrive to the point where your inner vision perceives all things in their divine glory – even the simplest of things become imbued with an exquisite quality inherent in all nature.

‘The symbolic meaning of eyes also carry a message of prophesy – literally seeing “a vision of the future.” This translates well with ancient alchemists and astrologers speaking of eyes of the sky foretelling certain events as they chart the stars in certain patterns to ascertain various outcomes.’

‘Many ancient esoteric as well as earth-based philosophies consider the eye as achannel or a passageway into a new dimension. Here the eye is not a physical symbol but rather a ethereal one in which consciousness may enter into a gateway of infinite expanse. This journey is traversed through the pitch-black channel of being-ness (represented by the black of the pupil). Once the threshold is crossed, one is said to obtain higher knowledge – a glimpse of heightened epiphany – comparable to enlightenment.’

Face
‘Dream meaning of faces should be interpreted according to the expression on the dream face. These are pretty explanatory. Happy faces elicit meanings of joy, harmony, peace, prosperity. Gruesome or unpleasant faces indicate turbulences, discontent, hostility, worry, inner displeasure. Illuminated faces are often portents of higher knowledge dispensed to the dreamer (maybe from a loved one, spirit guide or angel). A dream face with no features points to a heavy reliance on faith, spirituality or extrasensory perception to gain understanding over the use of physical senses.’

Faceless dreaming comes from the subconscious mind and could be something/someone you want to confront in reality. Perhaps, meaning low self confidence. The fear comes from something you don’t have control over,  normally in our dreaming we dream of the faces in our scene images but when our subconscious gives us no face to interact with, that becomes fear.

In spellbound in this case, the persona of the faceless character is recognized as ‘the proprietor’. Familiarised faceless characters may indicate a guilt complex.  Perhaps there is something in reality he felt he should have done but neglected to do. Faceless could also hint in this case a feeling of shame over an action he didn’t take.

Wings

Dream meaning of wings carry messages of “spread your wings and fly” to new locations (physical moves), understanding (gaining knowledge through study, school, etc) or flying to new spiritual heights. Dreaming of wings themselves may indicate it’s time to work on inner landscapes, or a prompting to fly into the realms of spirituality. It may also encourage a spring cleaning of the mind (sweep away rubbish thoughts) to gain clarity in thought about a certain troubling situation.

That’s right, altering the physical matter via nonphysical methods. These kinds of feats are accomplished by swallowing whole the reality of our physical presence and balancing that with our (mostly) nonphysical nature/essence.

If you’re dreaming of wings, it’s a clear sign of a desire to rise above a challenge. Dreaming of wings on animals may be a message to overcome base or animalistic qualities. It may also indicate the inner self’s desire to escape from undesirable (primitive) living conditions.

jindrich styrsky emilie comes to me in a dream


Charlie.R-

“Štyrský was another fascinated by dreams and recorded his own through writing, and later, drawings. For him, the dream state was a storehouse of motifs that he would join together in collage and painting until his death in 1942.

Styrsky’s imagery is a blurring between the erotic and the morbid. Using hardcore porn clipped from German and English stereo-cards and books, Styrsky disassociates sex from procreation and conceives of it from a purely pleasure giving point of view. The incongruous elements of plant details, a parachute and starry backgrounds emphasize the orgasmic while skeletons, men in gas masks, coffins and disembodied eyes draw a more sinister tone. Styrsky may have been poking fun at puritans who certainly would have been enraged by the montages by including the darker elements. As Bohuslav Brouk wrote in his afterword for Emilie; “People who hide their sexuality despise their innate capabilities without being able to rise above them. They deny their mortality…Any illusion to their animality, not only in life, but also in science, literature and art, wounds them because it disturbs their day-dreaming.”

References:

Avia.V,’whats-your-sign’,[online]Available at: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/dream-meaning-common.html, (Accessed 22^nd April)

Charlie.R,’5B4 photography and books’,[online]Available at:http://5b4.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/emilie-comes-to-me-in-dream-by-jindrich.html (Accessed 23rd)

Adam.R, ’Surrealist Photography’,[Book pg.22],(Accessed 20^th  April)

The Joke And It’s Relation To The Unconcious – Sigman Freud

“Why do we laugh? The answer, argued Freud in this groundbreaking study of humour, is that jokes, like dreams, satisfy our unconscious desires.

The joke and it’s relation to the unconscious (1905) explains how jokes provide immense pleasure by releasing us from our inhibitions and allowing us to express sexual, aggressive, playful or clynical instincts that would otherwise remain hidden. In elaborating this theory, Freud brings together a rich collection of puns, wittisisms, one-liners and anecdotes, many of which throw a vivid light on the society of early twentieth-century Vienna. Jokes, as Freud shows, are a method of giving ourselves away.

Analysing and searching as much as possible on Alfred Hitcock’s ‘Spellbound’, Was to stumble upon a collection of hidden and ‘rare’ recording of interviews of Hitchcock and many others.

After a conversation with an interviewer “I read somewhere once that you made a remark that romantic man and romantic lady leading role, people that play those are very much in love with each other.. ”

Hitchcock replies “Well, thats because you know, one hears of so many multiple marriages in Hollywood, woman have had four husband and visa versa and i thing its really because they meet in a love scene in a picture and they bring it to life and truth after 6’oclock in the dressing room preferably.

“have  you ever caught them doing this?”

“um ..no not myself because I like to be home by 6’oclock.

‘I wouldn’t  particularise it, i’m generalising. And hes not an army man either.”

“who??”

“General Ising.”

The interviewer then laughs and says, “oh.. you like all kinds of horror don’t you, bad puns…

Hitchcock cuts him short with – not bad puns, puns, puns are the highest form of literature’.

Although wouldn’t say that Hitchcock shared the exact same misogynistic views as Freud, you can certainly tell that he took a lot of interest and inspiration from him.

Throughout ‘Spellbound’, from a perspective of someone that hasn’t yet analysed the true meaning throughout the performance and metaphor use of the film, it would appear that the protagonist intended to present us with a certain amount of negative feeling towards the female character.

Of course anyone that knows Dali’s work would expect to see a range of surreal melting clocks and over props of this description; It is said that Dali’s use of drooping objects portray his own impotence. He also uses a lot of scenes for ants, borrowing their way through a hand for example, strong laborious creatures, perhaps portraying sperm in their own right.

Walter Benjamin- ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’,Illuminations

‘Evidently a different nature opens itself to the camera, than opens to the naked eye- if only because an unconsciously penetrated space is substituted for a space consciously explored by man’.— the cinematic MALE gaze.

Comparing expressions of woman in Ingres’ painting ‘La Grande Odalisque’ and a woman in a ‘girlie magazine’.

When the tradition of painting became more secular, other themes also offered the opportunity of painting nudes. But in the all there remains the implication that the subject (a woman) is aware of being seen by a spectator.

‘She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her.’

John Berger- Ways of Seeing

‘Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself in male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight’

In the art-form of the European nude the painters and spectator-owners were usually men and the persons treated as objects, usually woman. This unequal relationship is so deeply embedded in our culture that is still structures the consciousness of many woman. They do to themselves what men do to them. They survey, like men, their own femininity.

Comparing Manet’s Olympia with Titian’s original

Titian’s Olympia would be seen to be portrayed in a ‘traditional’ role, holding herself in a fair classically elegant fashion. A naked body has to be seen as an object to become a nude. To be naked is to be without disguise. In this she is wearing her hair as a disguise – hair is associated with power.

Being brave enough to have someone else in control of it ie. A hair dresser, is to hand over to a complete stranger a certain amount of this power.

Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion.

Manet’s Olympia is to have her sexual passion minimized having the watcher seize control of such passion. Positioning herself directly frontward, she feeds an appetite, not to have any of her own.

Titian’s is accompanied by a fellow gazing in the same room outwardly away from her. This is a painting of sexual provocation. A providing of a male seen to be lover, rarely has the females attention directed towards them, she will look away from him or outward the spectator. The protagonist is never to be painted, but the spectator in front of the picture who is presumed to be a man.

This is an experiment of selecting images of a traditional female nude, transforming the posing subject from a woman into a man. First sifting through the book with the mind’s eye, selected a couple, and sketching on the reproduction. Notice the violence in which the transformation ha to the assumptions of a likely viewer. Women are viewed quite differently to men, the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male.

In our modern day and age we have woman opposing the idea of woman being objectified by man and that what we see is always influenced on a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilisation, form, taste class and gender. But a lot of women go about it the complete wrong way; after all, relationships between the different genders should be based equality not superiority.

M.I.A is a prime example for someone that has taken a ‘female in power’ the complete wrong way. Let’s take her video ‘Bad Girls’ for example. In the video, she surrounds herself by men sprawling herself across the bonet of a sports car, dancing provocatively chanting an incredibly repetitive ‘tune’. What she is trying to pull off here, is a lady living in a ‘man’s world, and doin’ it well’. Jumping on the band wagon for the ‘boys and their toys’ so to speak, some of us will argue that her intentions have managed to backfire, for no woman really dreams of sitting on a car parading themselves around for the men to ‘idolise’. The only difference between her and that of the woman in the paintings from these earlier centuries, is that she happens to be wearing clothes but in place of them flaunts ‘what she’s packin’, as some modern day stereo types might say, on top of a car. She might as well put herself in Khia’s ‘Clean Version of ‘my neck, my back’ video.

References:

John.B,’Ways Of Seeing’[Book pg.43,49,57],(Accessed 18^th April)