Text Analysis: Rosalind Coward 'The Look'

Rosalind Coward’s exploration of The Look is focused on theories of women’s sexuality, and how their perception of self-image is shaped by the media and societal expectations. She addresses the commonly held notion that women have a ‘preoccupation with visual image…how these images measure up to a socially prescribed ideal’. Indeed, such a preoccupation is understandable, given the weight and importance placed upon image in Western media, often at the expense of other ‘sensual impressions’.

Recent technological developments such as recording, rapid reproduction and the internet have enabled Western culture’s obsession with looking. Cinema, television, advertising and magazines all focus upon idealised and fantastical visions of femininity, which is commonly held to be a result of male dominance and control of the visual media. Coward doesn’t dispute the idea that such control means that the look is largely controlled by men, or that ‘entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women’. She poses that the media’s camera is ‘an extension of the male gaze’, legitimising the ‘critical and aggressive’ gaze of men at ‘women on the street’ and in everyday life. The fact that women are often unable (or unwilling) to return such a judgemental and scrutinising look creates a power dynamic, where men are dominant and women are subordinate.

Coward acknowledges the somewhat prehistoric view of ‘man the hunter, a sort of cross between a rutting stag and David Bailey’, while women use their carefully ‘cultivated’ looks to ‘lure men to a terrible fate – monogamy’. Yet she disagrees that this is natural behaviour, but rather a result of social conventions of appropriate sexual behaviour. Looking is important in sexual relations, as a means of expressing dominance and subordination in the gender roles. However, Coward suggests that although voyeurism is ‘a way of taking sexual pleasure by looking at rather than being close to a particular object of desire, like a Peeping Tom’. The distance granted by voyeurism creates an element of security for the voyeur, allowing them to maintain the illusion of control and dominance.

The abundance of images of women in Western culture could be seen to have a profound impact on the way women function in society, as well as their perceived role in sexual relations. The importance of visual image is such that it is perceived to have a significant bearing on women’s ‘social success, and indeed to whether or not we will be loved’. Thanks to the romantic ideal perpetuated in the media, women have grown to recognise that appearance is a vital way for men to form opinions of women. Regardless of how untrue or illogical it may be, an intrinsic link has developed over time between women’s perceptions of visual appearance, and ‘security and comfort’. If women feel desirable, then there is a greater chance that they will be able to attract a loving partner, and be accepted within Western culture’s strict expectations.

            Coward also refers to Freud’s theory of the mirror phase, and his assertion that women are the more narcissistic sex, based on their more apparent obsession with appearance and self-image. Freud proposes that women need to be loved and admired, ‘and the man who fulfils this condition is the one who finds favour with them’; a somewhat shallow and unflattering view. If Freud’s view were correct, then it could be assumed that a narcissistic identification takes place when women view images of women in the media, as opposed to the desire experienced by men. Furthermore, images of ‘glamorous and highly sexualised’ women function as a mirror, appealing to women’s vanity and ‘their own fascination with their own image. Coward counters this by arguing that it is inaccurate to liken women’s fascination with self-image to Narcissus, as a woman’s fascination is more likely to be rooted in discontent than satisfaction. Rather than a ‘pleasurable identification’, women experience jealousy and anxiety when confronted with media’s glamorous images of femininity.

Coward’s focus on the experience of women perhaps unintentionally implies that men are not subjected to a comparable level of scrutiny. While there may not be the same level of interest in the male form from the media, it would be incorrect to assume that societal pressure and expectations are struggles unique to women. However, Coward raises some provocative questions regarding women’s own complacency and motivation to conform to stereotypes of femininity and desirability.