Men Want to Be Looked At

RM 215

The interchanging of the male gaze and the new female gaze has influenced how men, both heterosexual and homosexual, see themselves as objects of desire—especially depicted in popular culture. If the male nude in photography were as commonly accepted as the female nude, would our culturally constructed gaze become more comfortable with him? When most people think of the word “nude” in art, they think of the female nude. For nearly 2,000 years, the male nude overshadowed the female nude since Greek antiquity. The beauty of the male body was honored and shown with pride and confidence until the 19th century when the male nude faded and the female nude became the central focus in art. Today, the male nude is mostly associated with homo-eroticism. My research along with my own photographic exploration is used to discover the changes in “the gazes” that may be leading to a transformation of the heterosexual toward the male nude.