This piece is all about the power of the gaze, and the use of the text in the piece, especially the first person formatting of that text, is why it is necessary to analyze this piece under feminist methodology. The gender of the artist is incredibly important in understanding and contextualizing this piece. Without the knowledge of the artist, the piece almost loses its power and agency. Looking at it through a feminist methodology is necessary in understanding it. The phrase ‘your gaze hits the side of my face’ is feminist in of itself. It shows the woman who is not engaging, and who is looking away in another direction. The use of the word ‘hit’ is almost aggressive in power. And finally, the unspoken aspect of this piece is the presence and use of the ‘male gaze.’ The male gaze is present in art history, in every painting of a nude woman that was painted by a man. Therefore, this piece is empowering to women. They are rejecting the male gaze, and they are beyond it. As stated before, the use of the world ‘hit’ implies that the gaze is aggressive, and it is true that the male gaze is indeed aggressive, strong, and omnipresent throughout art history. The fact that the woman is turning away from the man, and from the male gaze, shows that she is better than the aggressive man. She does not fight back with the same aggressiveness, and she does not engage with the behavior. The woman fights back by turning away, and showing that she is better than the man who is directing his gaze at her. The use of feminist methodology is important in this context, as the message and the agency of the piece loses its context and its meaning if the artist is not known, or if one did not know the artist was a woman.
Women in Art History 