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It is apparent in the analytical deconstruction of Photography and the plastic

arts1, in a historical context, that the objectification of women is a popular topic of

debate. Monet, Cassatt, kruger and Hoch, to name a few, present visual discourse

on the male gaze. In a contemporary sense and more specifically to photography,

female artists have tried to challenge this discourse of the male viewing the female

and dedicated their work to re-establishing the female nude in a strong and proud

context. Artists like Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman and Sherrie Levine, question sexuality

and the depiction of women in the media and challenge traditional gender roles

striving to reclaim the female body as not just a form of opthmalogical masturbation

rather, a thinking independent entity contrary to history’s plastic depictions. While

this struggle for accurate representation of women in the arts is essential, it is

curious that no argument has been formally organized to discuss the depiction of the

male representation in Art and popular media. The neglect to address the depiction

of men in popular culture is dabilitating to the abolishment of gender based

stereotypes in western society. For centuries, men have been type-casted as

testosterone-mongering patriarchs, who are incessantly rational, promiscuous,

emotionally unavailable and detached from nature; these stereotypical depictions of

men have been evident throughout Art history dating as far back as the Seventh

Century statues of Pharaohs and the Greek Kouroi.2 This visual history has sculpted

1
An analytical deconstruction of the photographic and plastic arts; in that the plastic arts
have a vast history of gender bias depictions of women in sexually compromising positions /
situations which are perhaps not conducive to the actual sexual, and there fore physical
presence of ‘real’ women. By real women I mean living breathing, non-patricized (This is yet
another fabricated word by myself (its up there with the “Rauchenbergianization”) I simply
am implying that these women as ‘real’ women, living in male dominated societies,
personally, internally are not direct products of patriarchy, they themselves have
independent thoughts…I reside in a male dominated society yet I still have my own thoughts,
desires and ways of representing my self).

2
See Attached Photographs on pages
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the way we view men in antiquity, thus trapping them in a pseudo-vicious cycle of

learnt masculinity.

Why is the idealization of the male nude, especially in contemporary mass media,

rarely discussed? It seems the refusal of empathy regarding this issue is due to

patriarchal dominance in western society. These images epitomise the stereotypical

role of what it means to be “masculine” and they also continue to keep women in a

subservient aesthetic role3. Perhaps this cycle is perpetuated, by the general gender

roles placed upon women. If women were more free to satisfy and openly express

their own sexual desires, these images of men would be placed under harsh scrutiny.

The question then arises as to why women are presumed to be less likely to look at

photographs or images of the male nude with the same lustful eyes as men with the

female nude. In A Perspective on Female Responses to Sexual Material by Christine

Pickard, she reiterates studies conducted in the Seventies regarding the responses

of male and female panels to erotic visual stimuli. Interestingly enough the results

conveyed: that contrary to the cliché idea that women are less sexually driven then

men, they in fact discovered that explicit sex was equally stimulating to both the

male and female subjects. Pickard claims that the general discrepancy lies in a

woman’s willingness to admit variations of arousal when exposed to sexually explicit

3
Visually subservient; As long as men are expected to be aroused by and interested in seeing
women in compromising images (compromising to their dignity; in the viewer vs subject
context) women will be placed in those roles. This is the patriarchal cycle that the media and
society have trapped most men of our age.
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material.4 In this same concept it is evident that men are more willing to express

arousal,5 due to societal pressures to appear masculine. It is part of the socially

constructed male personae to desire and seek out sexual intercourse.

The basic route of the issue is not placed in gender per se, or in sexuality; it is rooted

simply in the archaic expectations placed upon men, thousands of years ago,

indoctrined into western traditions and still echoing into our current society6. The

cliché image of masculinity is, however, being challenged by the 'metrosexual'7

male. While this new image is at least more realistic, it is equally, if not more

unhealthy. Men are now encouraged to share the same anorexic fate as women do

in the media and fashion industry. In favor of an optimistic argument: at least men

and women are becoming equally exploited in the media.

Androgeny is sexy

4
Christine Picard, “A Perspective on Female Responses to Sexual Material,” in The Influence
of Pornography on Behavior, ed. Maurice Yaffé and Edward C. Nelson (New York: Academic
Press, 1982), 107

5
Besides the obvious physical evidence, aka erection

6
This indoctrination would be accredited by me to the Constantinian establishment of
christian virtues; The chaste woman and man made in the image of god; intended to live and
succeed in his 'virtuous' image.

7
“Modern enlightened, sort of Renaissance man. Secure and confident, capable and cool,
typically well educated and stylish. Heterosexual with a twist, not gay by any means, but he
probably has a few gay friends, and can easily be mistaken for gay by rednecks and jock
types. The only straight guy in a fabric store or antique shop who is not being dragged there
by a woman.” http://www.urbandictionary.com/ 1999-2008
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Sex Sells

Idealistic images have been used extensively as a capitalist means of profit and

target selling since the revolution of 'cool' in the Sixties.8 Every time a sub-culture

becomes mainstream it is due to corporate upselling of underground appearances.

Corporate upselling features idealistic people wearing anti-conformist clothing, trying

to appeal to this unique population. These underground groups have to re-evolve to

try and pull away from the mainstream capitalist market. The “conquest of Cool”9.

This bureaucratic conquest is the exact epidemic that plagues pre-teen confidence

and keeps the plastic surgery market in business.

8
“The Reconquest of Cool,” Adbusters Canadian Edition, March/April 2008 #76,

Volume 16, Number 2, pp 3

9
“The Reconquest of Cool,” 2008, 8
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Illustration 2: Avril Lavigne 2002

Corporately financed images are then force-fed to the public in attempt to reach the

twenty-something crowd. Unfortunately the still impressionable youth absorb these

ideals, assimlating them without question. It is in this raping of aesthetic innocence

that keeps the cycle of gender-discriminatory images pulsing through the internet,

television, and in the magazines. This exponentially perpetuates the cycle of envy

and keeps the population buying into the corporate aesthetic; Specific to the male

model, the corporate aesthetic normally consists of “...the 'perfect male'--a

natural...body that... is an idealized and fetishized image of the male body... A body

requiring no work (does no work?). The ‘gentleman’ body personifies the strength
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and virility of the white middle (upper) class man. The white man ‘exists’ naturally

and the images reify their dominance and their privilege.”10

Illustration 4: The fashionably skinny ideal male: The

Kings of Leon 2007
Illustration 5: The
Classic Ideal Male:
Garret Neff, Calvin

The above Calvin Klein example is certainly directed to a male audience, in that it is

promoting a fragrence for men, which it is entitled “Man”11. Paradoxically, it is

evident that men are culturaly conditioned “against appreciating the beauty of male

bodies.”12 This draws into question the validity of the advertisment: Why would a

10
C. Bakers Anthropological Body, “Construction of the Ideal Man,”
http://anthofthebody.blogspot.com/2007/08/construction-of-ideal-man.html

11
Fantastically cliché, and hideously passé

12
Picard, 109
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company use an idealized image of man to promote a product for men, when

proven that men are not drawn by images of their own sex. This advertisment is a

blatent device used by the media, utterly pointless, simply perpetuating the learnt

masculinity predicament. The ill-fated male personae, frightfully idealized and

eroticised, is disgustingly abused. Even in advertisments directed at women

promoting a false depiction of “women” serves, at least, an aesthetic stimulation in

its female viewers.13 In opposition to the Calvin Klein advertisment, its targeted

audience is generally un- affected by the aesthetic perfection. The convouluted

media falslely personifies men as archaic and built for simple physical dominance. It

is arguably more detrimental to the abolishment of the male gender stereotype than

that of the female. Consequently, a massive hinderance in the feminist intention to

rid the media of images featuring women in subordinate roles, is due to the

inaccurate representation of men.

13
“Women, on the other hand, are not taught to reject images of their own sex...a woman
can enjoy looking at a beautiful woman and can find the experience a genuinely erotic one
without it threatening her own femininity.” Picard, 109
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Illustration 6: Adbusters.org
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Illustration 7: British Museum; Ramses II

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Bibliography

C. Baker's Anthropological Body. “Construction of the Ideal Man.”

http://anthofthebody.blogspot.com/2007/08/construction-of-ideal-man.html

(accessed March 28, 2008).

Kitzenger, Sheila. Woman's Experience of Sex. New York. Penguin. 1985

Picard, Christine. “A Perspective on Female Responses to Sexual Material,” in

The Influence of Pornography on Behavior, edited by Maurice Yaffé and Edward
C. Nelson, 91-113. (New York: Academic Press, 1982).

“The Reconquest of Cool.” Adbusters, Canadian Edition. March / April 2008,

#76, Volume 16, Number 2.

Photo's Shamelessly ripped off the internet, all photo's with proper copyright

information is extended beneath each individual photograph.

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