TO WATCH & BE WATCHED

THE FEMALE GAZE HAS EXISTED AS LONG AS ART HAS, BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN TODAY’S WORLD? CHARLOTTE JANSEN TRACES ITS MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE IN FASHION, CULTURE AND BEYOND

THE THING THAT STRIKES ME MOST ABOUT THE FEMALE GAZE IS that it is a rallying call, not only for women but for all the perspectives that have been missing throughout history in art and culture, where the male viewpoint has dominated. The concept of the female gaze is not new – women have always been active gazers – but the term is useful today to articulate an age-old absence in all forms of art, fashion and culture.

And yet it means so much more than this. The term emerged in the mid 1970s, out of an essay by the feminist film critic Laura Mulvey dealing with the superficial treatment of female characters in cinema. Then it mostly percolated in academic and radical feminist circles until it made its way into the vernacular in the 2010s. I first encountered the term on the internet, used to describe a movement of female artists, among them Juno Calypso and

Maisie Cousins, who were using photography to explore their own, and sometimes other women’s, bodies. Their dazzling visions of different aspects of being a woman felt redemptive and relatable.

A subtle shift in observing snowballed into an avalanche: by the time I published my book on the female gaze, Girl On Girl, in 2017, the movement had expanded across the arts, fashion, culture and beyond. More than a counterbalance to the male point of view, the female gaze has driven conversations on diversity, inclusion, equity and power. The contributions of women of colour, trans women and differently abled women have updated the 1970s idea of the female gaze as our understanding and experience of womanhood evolves. Soft, supple, and spacious, the female gaze continues to be reinterpreted and remoulded, the same way as our understanding of what constitutes ‘female’ is ever-changing.

The female gaze has also prompted female-centred narratives in cinema and TV, everywhere from the li