Frances Martinez: Week 3 Assignment

 

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Cosmetic Facial Variations),1972

 Frances Martinez, Morning Time, 2024

    Taking these pictures took me a bit out of my comfort zone, but I was inspired by this piece because of its unapologetic statement. This reminded me of getting ready in the morning, which is not always so glamorous. I decided to capture brushing my teeth in a natural setting, right in the morning when I woke up,  interpreting Mendieta's piece of not necessarily fitting the societal expectations by being "pretty" or "sexy" and just expressing yourself.

Female and Male Gaze:

The female gaze embraces femininity. It is not only limited to women and also, the female gaze shows self-expression in a creative and relatable way. The male gaze is how men sexualize and depict women from their eyes, often as objects. The female gaze is powerful because of its influence to be able to embrace yourself in every way.

Female Gaze: Art that Looks at What Women See | NYTIMES

Quote: "So is there such a thing as a "female gaze?" Ms. Vischer said that she ultimately concluded that there probably was no single way to define how women artists perceive their subjects. But she did concede: "The female artists' gaze is shaped by their lived experiences, which are different for women and men."

Ana Mendieta: Artist Who Pushed Boundaries | NYTimes

Quote: "As an immigrant, Mendieta felt a disconnect in the United States. The trauma of being uprooted from her Cuban homeland as a girl would leave her with questions about her identity and make her more conscious of being a woman of color. These questions would echo in her work, which explored themes that pushed ethnic, sexual, moral, religious and political boundaries. She urged viewers to disregard their gender, race or other defining societal factors and instead connect with the humanity they share with others."

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Chapters 2+3

Quote: "Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated. To acquire some control over this process, women must contain it and interiorize it. That part of a woman’s self which is the surveyor treats the part which is the surveyed so as to demonstrate to others how her whole self would like to be treated. And this exemplary treatment of herself by herself constitutes her presence. Every woman’s presence regulates what is and is not ‘permissible’ within her presence."

Response: This is something that continues to happen with women throughout the world. Women constantly get observed and watched to the point that it takes over our identity and self image. We have to constantly watch what we wear, how we present ourselves to get the respect we deserve, or find ways to present ourselves a certain "unattractive" way in order to be left alone. The survey and surveyor concept is interesting and accurate in depicting how men perceive women and how women end up perceiving themselves.

Quote: "To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men. The social presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage within such a limited space. But this has been at the cost of a woman’s self being split into two. A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself."

Response:  This was powerful to me because again, identity becomes very prominent throughout life because of the societal expectations that women have. It is hard to be your true self when everyone is telling you what is acceptable to do and say as a woman. I believe to break out from this, and to be able to be true to one's identity, a woman has to think beyond the societal expectations we have today.