Seeing Through His Eyes: Reinterpreting Religious Art to Recover Feminine Individuality From the Male Gaze

Abstract

This dissertation explores the male gaze in religious artwork and its impacts on modern society, particularly in relation to femininity, sexuality, gender, and identity. It investigates how religious imagery influences contemporary views on woman.

Chapter one examines the depictions of The Virgin Mary, analysing both physical and emotional portrayals alongside public perceptions of women today. Comparing male and female capacity to recognise facial expressions, using Zafra’s sculpture piece Our Lady of Consolation as a place of perspective. This chapter also looks at the origins of the male gaze, drawing from Laura Mulvey’s Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

Chapter two investigates themes of sexual and bodily shame within biblical texts and their representation in art, focusing on William Blake’s painting Eve Tempted by the Serpent. This artwork symbolises the beginnings of shame and its continued feature in modern periods such as purity culture and slut shaming.

The final chapter addresses the ways in which women are reclaiming their femininity and sexuality beyond the male gaze. Highlighting how female artists create spiritual and explorative works centred on female experiences and rejecting the male centric ideals of perfection and sexuality. The creation of feminine spaces in art is essential for independence and development away from objectified patriarchal perspectives.

Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the male gaze is a longstanding societal issue, embedded in both biblical and contemporary contexts. While it may be unlikely for it to disappear from society, individuals and artists are creating ways to navigate around it. Asserting their own autonomy, independence and reshaping the pre-existing ideologies of both femininity and religion. This work emphasises the importance of exploring and changing narratives around traditional ideas of holiness, purity, and strength through the lens of gender and art.