The Male Gaze In Phantom Lady Comics

The scene in the panels from Figure 4, is one that acts as a reminder to what had being the norm emphasising the importance of continuity and reader familiarity within the genre, where Catwoman says “Hold still. You know you’re not very good at this damsel in distress thing.” Jeph Loeb obviously takes on a journey to the golden era of the genre with those lines by referencing those lines. The idea of Lois Lane was one that saw the concept of the damsel in distress being introduced by the creators, fulfilling the particular need for Superman to be an effective saviour. This idea was used week in, week out, creating the strong impression of women being very dependent and also as victims that needed to be saved continually by the male protagonist,

This essay examines the ideologies of gender, which are conveyed in society to question the reality between the relationship of femininity and masculinity. This comes from recognition of gender as a social construct, and that there is an apparent difference in the expectation of how women should behave and present themselves. The focus is therefore on the construction of femininity, why is it that only women wear makeup and portray an artificial version of themselves? Consequently, masculinity, in itself, is considered true, natural and authentic. Therefore how is femininity constructed and understood and how does this relate to masculinity? In order to understand this concept, it will explore and evaluate Joan Riviere’s influential 1929 essay, Womanliness as Masquerade, which is an apt explanation of how women who desire male attention to conceal them behind a mask of femininity. This idea of masquerade is portrayed through almost anything such as their appearance to their ways of dress or even their behavior in public. Riviere goes onto examining how women mimic an image of womanliness, but that in its own turns into a masquerade – a performance to conceal one’s real self. Furthermore, this essay examines Judith Butler’s 1990 text Gender Trouble, in which she discusses how existing feminist movements are confined by how they define gender. Butler also argues that this definition is ‘outdated’ and

The author helps the reader empathize with the passengers on the Lusitania in several ways. One way is he said on “Elsie must have gazed in wonder at the Lusitania’s four towering steel functions, which gleamed in the rays of sunshine that briefly pierced the gray clouds.” (on page 6) This helps the reader understand how the boat was something new that many people didn’t see before. By saying the word gaze” it helps the reader understand how excited people were to see it. This can also be proven when on page six it says “Elsie was filled with excitement” because it also shows the excitement of people boarding the boat.

Praise for Toomer’s depictions of black sexuality are well-deserved because they are bold and daring in a way that was uncommon prior to the modern era. Traditional literary depictions of women were limited to those that conformed to the values of the cult of womanhood. What Toomer’s women in Cane accomplish is quite the opposite. He employs the male gaze as a tool of humanization, often in critique of the violence executed against the black female body which has been justified for so long by the gaze itself. Toomer works to situate womanhood in reality as opposed to Victorian notions of purity, chastity, and domesticity. He does this by placing black and white womanhood adjacent to each other and offering sexuality and promiscuity as part

From helpless damsel in distresses to powerful superheroines, female characters in comics have sure made it a long way. They have gone from underdeveloped supporting characters, such as the love interest or sidekick to someone who owns the spotlight with their combat skills and superpowers. This shift in portrayal is being acknowledged and praised by many comic book readers who have been hoping for a very long time that females will one day become more realistically portrayed. However, despite this, there are still a select few who choose to shift the focus away from the impact superheroines are having and instead focus on their flaws and what they still consider to be “wrong” with their portrayal.

In society and our entertainment, men are often portrayed as the stronger and more dominant gender. They often have a privileged status in the world since the society we live in a mostly patriarchal. However, there are some forms of entertainment that show men as inferior to women. Women often show hatred towards men and usually can be hostile . This is known as anti-male or missandry. In Fay Weldon’s novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Ruth Patchett’s husband, Bobbo, is having an affair with a woman named Mary Fisher. Ruth then goes through vigourous trials and completely reinvents herself in order to take revenge on Mary for stealing her husband and to get Bobbo back into her life. Although people may have a different view than I do, I believe that The Life and Loves of a She-Devil is not anti-male because Ruth’s entire life revolves around Bobbo, because the women are depicted as weak and needing men and because the men in the story are well-rounded characters unlike the women.

In the early 1970’s, she was adopted as a role model by the feminist movement and appeared on the cover of the issue of Ms. Magazine. DC comics decided to give Wonder Woman a new start and launched a new series. The new series brought back Wonder Woman’s feminist roots and her super powers; it remained faithful to the concept the Marston original created for her. Despite her many incarnations and radical reinventions, Wonder Woman has remained a recognizable symbol, that reflects patriarchal society’s need to redefine ideals according to culture and economic circumstances. Both sides of the Amazon princess, Wonder Woman and Diana Prince illustrate that someone can embody both masculinity and femininity, as well as that they are not set in stone.

While talking to my Indian friends about our summer project, “Adolescents’ Health Awareness Program”, I listened to their stories about harassment and eve teasing while travelling alone. I had also come across some of the situations where I feel uncomfortable and hate my body. When I walk down the streets of the city, a person’s stare and taunts, make me feel as if I have done a crime by being born as a girl. The constant gazes are not so unusual now.

Women in horror fiction tend to be portrayed in a similar light. They are either victims or survivors, but rarely aggressors. Or are they capable of being all these? And if they are, for what purpose do they serve? Dan Simmons’s horror novel, Song of Kali (SK) portrayal of the mother and the villainesses/monster, emphasises females’ struggles for survival of their own through sexual selection, protection of their offspring and aggression towards rivals. Amrita is the maternal embodiment in contrast to Kali and Kamakhya as monsters. Furthermore the recurrent adaptive problems of surviving in a hostile and unknown place, with the added factor of the supernatural, dark and evil forces, make SK is a good premise to test for the biocultural paradigm.

Remember seeing an advertisement that seemed to cater to men? How about a picture, or even an internet meme, that didn’t necessarily give an accurate representation of women because it was meant to be relatable to men? This is characterized by the “male gaze”, which can be defined as “the way in which visual arts and literature depict the world from a masculine point of view”. It involves treating women as objects that are there for men’s pleasure. The male gaze coincides with the fact that originally men were only ones allowed to paint/sell art, and they crafted it for other men to buy it. This gaze works so “well” because of the fact that men have always had power over women; political power, mostly. Historically, men have had more power

The meaning of the male gaze is exactly what its title suggests, the world (usually in film, art or literature) through the eyes of males that cause females to have a passive role in the narrative. Laura Mulvey came up with the concept of the male gaze in the 1970s and her original definition places women as a passively observed sort of object only present for the sexual gratification of the male viewer. This all applies to some of the important works in Duchamp’s life and so they will be analyzed with this theory in mind, but it is also important to note that Duchamp’s use of the female gender also allowed for a blurring in lines of just how genderless art truly

advertisements and came up with a systematic approach to analyze ads. He looked at specific

Although women are predominately the focus within sexual stories in the tabloids, the female gaze becomes more and more apparent within the 21st Century. The female gaze is the opposite in theory to the Male Gaze, a concept put forward by Mulvey (1975). It hypothesizes that gender power is constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses. In contrast, a Female Gaze has been put forward, which is a product of feminist campaigning and societal pressure on men to look good as well as women, for example gym culture with males in magazines like GQ. Pollock (1988) supports this, by arguing that the female gaze can often be visually negated, showing how men can be pressured by the media

A woman can tell a lot about you according to the way your eyes are interacting with her. Their intuition is sharp and well honed and they are capable of deciphering

“…having anyone look at her” (Lispector, 103), “afraid [that someone] would “say something to her”, would look her up and down” (Lispector, 103); these fears reflect the amount of men that, on a daily basis, ogle, stare, and shout profanities at women. However, Lispector goes on to say that the men “watched her yet did not see her” (Lispector, 104), as if she were a doll that could have her outer appearance appreciated, but have her cotton stuffing disregarded.