Man Ray’s Objectification of Women

Man Ray’s Objectification of Women

Through man rays career as a photographer he often chose to photograph woman as merle an object rather then as an individual. He did this by photographing there lips, breast, curves and other sexual aspects of there body as well as posing them in erotic ways all while leaving out anything that gave them individuality such as there face.
Surrealist, including Man Ray thought women to be in one of two categories-either the femme-enfant which means the unconscious, untamed, virginal, or naive muse, a woman unknowingly plays for the patriarch, or the amour fou which is the sign of revolution and passion, nature, but unbridled. The concept of “woman” objectified by male needs was in conflict with the individual woman’s subjective need for self-definition and free artistic expression.
One can clearly see through Man Rays photographs he considered woman to be femme-enfant. Because he believed this, He chose to show it through his work, by posing woman so that they seemed to be just for men’s pleasure with no individuality of there own or for any reason to exist but to pleases men. There faces removed from the photograph because they didn’t serve a purpose, it was believed by some men a woman is a woman, they all have the same use.
Many argue that Man Ray’s portraits of women are mix of violence and eroticism, which could have been a result of his tragic upbringing and the problems related to it. It is clear in the picture, “Blanc et Noir”, taken by Man Ray in 1929 that his own history of childhood abuse has contributed to his art. In a sense Man Ray became the abuser instead of the abused by objectifying these woman in his photographs. By his own testimony, Ray was sexually gratified through punishing women. He sexually abused his ex-wives. This goes to show that Man Ray did actually objectified women. The woman’s body became a way of communication between two men. A way of showing to the woman’s new lover that another had touched her, this is what he is trying to...

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