Danae and the Golden Shower; Vitrine
This nineteenth-century French painting is an archetypal example of a classical female nude. The aim of this genre is to put a woman’s body on display as an erotic object offered to the male gaze. There are certain conventions that such a painting will follow, all of which are exemplified here. These conventions include but are not limited to: the models inviting gaze into the distance of the painting, submissiveness, positioning parallel to the plane of the painting’s surface, as well as bodily hairlessness. The presence of hair other than on the head would symbolize animal passion and female desire, which would foster too much individuality and autonomy for the purposes of the female nude. In this painting not only is her body hairless, but her genitalia have been practically erased. Additionally, the woman is often placed just below the center of the canvas so that the viewer does not have to look up to her but also is not looking down at her as a medical examiner would. The nakedness of this woman is not about her individuality but about its transcendence so as to fulfill male fantasies and the erasure of the woman’s subjectivity. Biblical and mythological tropes have historically been used to justify these otherwise lewd depictions well into the 19th century.
VitrineThe imagery of naked women has been commodified throughout various forms of media and visual art. Access to pornography has only increased in the past two-and-a-half centuries, first with widespread dissemination of photographic pornography followed by the introduction of pornographic films. The vast majority of these films are crafted by and for the male viewer and though not considered art, engage in the same tropes as other voyeuristic art. Advertisements use similar tactics and often focus more on the female figure than on the product being sold. The female in the advertising image is sold with proper product placement, either enticing men into believing that the product will attract such a woman or enticing women to believe that the product will turn them into such a woman. Successful advertisements utilizing women in this way proliferate through society and create sexualized cultural icons such as the pinup girl, Playboy bunny, and Marilyn Monroe holding down her dress in the wind. While the ways these images are deployed may differ, the trope of voyeuristic objectification has not significantly deviated from that of the classical female nude.