“There is power in looking.” Bell Hooks (Oppositional Gaze)

My project explores how vulnerability in various mediums encourages and embodies resistance. I want to explore these themes in Meiselas’ “Room of One’s Own” versus her more “graphic” work, “Archives of Abuse.” How is resistance showcased on a different scale in both of these works? Finally, I would like to incorporate the themes of some of our readings and apply those themes to all of the works mentioned. Eventually, I will be incorporating the notion of topless/nude protesting as a form of resistance and vulnerability (bodies in the street).

When we think about violence against women, what do our minds immediately go to? Or, if I ask somebody to show me an example of violence against women, they might feel hesitant and not want to search for that image. Our minds immediately go to the media’s showcasing of violence against women in a world of growing access to those mediums. They might not want to have to “see” that photo or scene either. How much “vulnerability” do we want to see, as spectators, or feel is “appropriate” to look at as spectators? Are photographs of battered women too graphic, too violent? Or is the lack of that media, the one that showcases the most severe forms of violence against women, more harmful? Is it better that we never see those instances to protect our own perceptions of violence, or is it worse? These are all questions I explored as I looked through various forms of media by Susan Meiselas, artist Donna Ferrato, and women protesting topless/nude.

My thesis: Resistance is showcased through these photographs by urging, almost forcing the spectator to look and witness them, no matter the difference in severity. Like Hooks says, there is power in looking, and exposure with brute force allows the photograph’s narrative and intention to transform the spectator. The spectator goes from a passive onlooker to an active participant. It is through the exposure to these photographs and these mediums that audiences can truly understand the severity of conditions survivors have endured at the hands of perpetrators. Furthermore, it is through exposure to the naked female body in protest that people are exposed to harsher realities; it is the ultimate form of resistance in protest.

Making Violence Visible: 

Meiselas’ Archives of Abuse Notes

When I think of Archives of Abuse, I am reminded of a phrase Bell Hooks mentions in “The Oppositional Gaze,” which says that throughout history, as white people repressed the black gaze, “there was now an overwhelming longing, a rebellious desire, an oppositional gaze.” 

I see these words echoing in the very actions of gazing at these photographs. For so long, the public has been entirely indifferent to the realities of abuse that women undergo. Abuse was seen as an issue within the home, and whatever occurred within those spaces 
 was to remain private and away from the public eye. Women’s issues were domestic, and it was not the public’s place to have any exposure to them. But, as Meiselas’ project broke that barrier, it established a form of resistance. It resisted the apathy and attitude of ignorance within the public, as the harshness of those photographs was projected onto bus stops as anti-abuse advertisements. 

Hooks also says she “would not only stare, but to change reality with her look.”

These photos are a means to showcase the ultimate vulnerability, and that showcasing of vulnerability serves the purpose of resistance. The reality and experiences the subjects in these photos have experienced are beyond brutal, and their existence is now made into the center of others’ blurred realities.

Whether or not the survivors pictured in these photographs are staring directly or just present and allowing those photos to be taken, it is a form of changing reality with their presence. It is reclaiming oneself.

Resistance in Subtlety: 

Meiselas’ Room of Their Own

In Room of Their Own, Meiselas photographs different scenes from domestic violence shelters in the UK. When I look at these photographs, I think about how much violence and graphic content is lacking from these photos. Instead, they may be perceived as mundane compared to Meiselas’ Archives of Abuse. 

However, these photos themselves showcase a different aspect of resistance. The impact these photos have on the observer is the ability to see the women’s safe space, to see that there is life after assault or during this transitional point in their lives where they find themselves in these shelters. 

I find Prosser’s Picturing Atrocity most relevant here when I analyze this medium of photography. There is no violence depicted, no gory suffering in the way we are exposed to in the other project. Prosser says, “There’s more atrocity when the suffering is closer to home…photography is not innocent but can be part of an atrocity as a spectacle” (Prosser 9). 
I feel as though these photos leave less space for that interpretation, that the images themselves are making a spectacle of suffering. Rather, they showcase a different perspective of abuse, an equally important part: healing. This is resistance to the depiction of “just suffering” as it showcases this perspective. 

These photos also have a different perspective of vulnerability and are as impactful/vulnerable as somebody who is bruised and physically hurt depicted within a picture.

Vulnerability and Violence: 

Donna Ferrato Living with the Enemy

Donna Ferrato has been working for over twenty years on depicting not only abuse as it is showcased on the sufferer but also the impact of abuse on the woman and children. 

I see this photography collection with parallels to Prosser’s work, as it can and does depict atrocity on a more extreme level. Prosser says that “the photography of atrocity urges a response from us…we cannot look at this photography the way we look at others” (9) 

Prosser says that one of the reasons why atrocity photography immediately grabs our attention is because we don’t know how to respond or what to do as a response. That uncertainty adds a layer of interest, and being drawn to it


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There is some discussion about whether some very horrific events should have even been photographed? To that, I ask your opinion. 
Ferrato’s photography is a form of resisting abuse by showcasing a different aspect of vulnerability. You see, some of the photos of the aftermath of abuse include those of women sharing their emotions (crying, speaking) and even their children pictured. This is powerful in creating that legacy of healing and showcasing the actualities that come after abuse. 

Demanding the Gaze: 

Topless protests: Contreras and others

From protests in Chile to Paris, showcasing the nude body as a means of advancing an agenda has garnered lots of attention. Whether this attention is positive or negative, it adds to conversations about resistance, the body as a vessel in the street (Butler), and the values of resistance displayed in nudity. 

One of the most significant challenges to women protesting topless is that it “sexualizes” the context of the protesting and strips away from its intention. I see parallels in this misconception with the notes by Mulvey regarding women as the figure of the male gaze in the media. (As we all know, this is regarding studying cinema, but I wanted to connect these thoughts to my point). Mulvey says, “the visual presence of the woman has tended to freeze the flow of action…” (29). I see this parallel in the perception of topless protests. Topless women are not perceived as resistors by male audiences, critical female audiences, etc.; instead, they are just promiscuous, removing themselves from reality and removing importance from protest.