It’s a great episode. In her usual interested, knowledgeable way, Mary Beard discusses a variety of sculptures and paintings from Western Art depicting the beautiful nude. Starting with Praxiteles’ Knidian Aphrodite, she traces the fascination artists have had with nude figures, playing with modesty and sexuality.
Her overall argument about female nudes is that they are always seen through the male gaze. Not really a surprising conclusion, but important to stress nonetheless. But the programme goes beyond this. By considering male nudes and female nudes by female artists, Mary gives a more varied picture of this artistic trend.
What struck me most though was the very end of the episode.
In the final ten minutes, she considers the wider perspective of the female nude in art. She looks at a Southern Nigerian headdress, which has at its centre a naked woman. Unlike in Western art, it’s not about her nudity; instead, with a child on her back, her bare breasts are about her centrality to the community. The focus here is not on her sexuality but on her vital role in procreation.
On the other hand Picasso, who is inspired by African art, turns such figures into highly sexualised prostitutes, as is seen in his painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. While this is but one example of this contrasting view, it sums up the differing attitudes quite clearly.
This made me think and reflect on our Western society.
As a new mother, I’ve had to become comfortable with breastfeeding in public. Why is this something I’ve had to become ‘comfortable’ doing? In my two short visits to Zambia, I’ve seen women feed their babies without thinking twice about it. Shouldn’t it be the same here?
The Equality Act of 2010 protects women’s right to feed in public, cafes have lovely posters saying they welcome it and people, for the most part, don’t stare. While that’s nice, it is at the same time, slightly ridiculous.
Watching Mary’s programme and seeing that conflicting attitude played out in art, suggests to me there is more anthropological research to be done in this area.
Re the Yoruba head-dress. Mary was at pains to point out the difference between traditional, western nudes and the head-dress. However, she and her expert, I thought, did not make a compelling case that one could completely sideline the ‘male gaze’, even when religion and fertility were central.
What about the Dionysia? A fertility festival, yes, but much more than that.
Interesting that you mention the Dionysia as Dionysus & Yoruba’s Ogun figure have a lot in common, as explored by Wole Soyinka in his adaptation of the Bacchae (‘A Communion Rite’). Both gods considered patrons (for want of better word) of acting and their power is transgressive yet ‘just’ & restorative. I don’t know whether Ogun was involved in fertility rites. A celebration of fertility sanctioned within a patriarchy is certainly a complex dynamic which must dislocate both female body and male gaze somewhat? Does that make any sense?!