All eyes on me

Well its coming to the end of this brief and i must say i think im relieved... the belly attention has become old now and all my clothes are just stretched. boohoo.

Too bad i cant use my special parking space for much longer...

Since the beginning of this case study, I started looking at the representation of pregnant women and how different people view these women.

One art style commonly used is the scopic stance.

Scopophilia is a term meaning, an erotic pleasure in looking.

But where is the erotic visual pleasure in looking at a pregnant women?

(Hmm, i was trying to find an appropriate image i could post here to show you what i meant but wow there is a lot of pregnant porn out there but i think a little bit too risky to post on blogspot-but by all means go see, its pretty hardcore - how far can one go?)

"While the sexualised imaging of women is well developed in the scopic imagery, pregnant women as photographic subjects seem to block the scopic gaze?"

This further explains..

"Maternal sexuality , embodied by the pregnant women, does not lend itself easily to appropriation. Instead, a vigorous patriarchal mandate keeps maternity and sexuality seperate"

There is, as Bourdieu demonstrated, a deep discomfort with applying the gaze, with its implied voyeuristic eroticism, to the figure of the pregnant women.

This is something that i discovered quite quickly in my pregi case study, some people feel uncomfortable looking at me. This was a challenge due to my akward shyness but it also made me think. Are people looking at me because of my class? Is it because i show evidence that i am sexually active? Is it because of my age?

Artist, Alice Neels work explores the visual representation of the pregnant body. Her work is amazing. Here are some of her works (note the gazes)

"Because her sexual history is inscribed on her body, the male gaze cannot penetrate her"