The Physicality of Fixation

2021

In a world ordered by social imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between the active/male and the passive/female.” (Mulvey, 1975). You can always tell when you’re being watched; the burning of a person’s eyes on the back of your head. This intuition is separate from your senses - telling you to turn around or to look up - and then the uncomfortable meeting of eyes as you glance at one another before quickly averting your gaze.

For women the presence of an unwanted stare can induce panic. This ‘harmless’ lechery of the body forces women to reflect on their own behaviour rather than that of their perpetrators, instigating an internalised sense of responsibility. But how can the male population understand this feeling of objectification? Filmed in the home, this performative work focuses on the unequal social power between the gazing man and the gazed-upon woman, using the participating spectator within this overbearing power imbalance between the two.