As a figurative sculptor I’ve spent much of my life turning over the questions of exploitation in viewing the body. As a male artist, when I depict a female body, how much of my response is authentic and how much a matter of our cultural socialization we refer to as the “male gaze”? What am I to do if the model that shows up is pretty close to the idea body type that our patriarchal culture prefers? If I depict what I see there are going to be those who feel the model is objectified, whereas if the model is overweight or old or misshapen, not so much. What does a non-exploitive depiction look like? Often the answers seem to reveal more about the speaker than resolving the situation. So here’s my take:
Yes, the patriarchy objectifies women (as well as most of nature!) That’s horrid and we should work against it. But Nature is also what created our bodies and it’s quite clear that for a human, another human body is the most beautiful thing there is! All the more so with young, healthy women. I suspect that’s because each of us was born of a body that looks like that; so that body becomes unconsciously the image of The Divine (She who created and sustains us.) I can certainly see how anyone who’s been objectified rails against another’s suffering the same. But this does not negate my own experience. I see in the woman both a sexual animal and an “object” of beauty. Does that mean I’m objectifying her? I’m aware how women artists can depict the female body sexually (VERY common in women artists!) without accusations of objectification. That doesn’t so much mean they’re free from that fault, but that that’s OK in the patriarchy.
We cannot see beauty without delighting in our experience of it. The same happens to me with sexual arousal. Yet I too bristle at images of sexy women that hints at nothing beyond. I delight in my experience. If you enjoy a good meal are you objectifying your food? A sunset? These are the tough questions.
In the end there’s no winning this argument, there’s only learning. When I hear the conversation come up it becomes clear (since everyone has a dog in this fight) that the best answers are always going to be subjective. So please do respond to an image, but then listen to yourself… What do you learn?
