Please Take Off the Male Gaze! See Nakedness, See Beauty, See Truth.

Throughout my exhibition, I noticed a discomfort in viewers facing the wall of naked female bodies with the moon, my 'Phases collection'.

There was a hesitation, as if they were not allowed to look, for fear of sexualising the figures.

In an over-sexualised culture, we have been conditioned to see through the male gaze. The hesitation to look comes from shame.

I tend to use female nakedness in my work, from my naked linear illustrations in my book 'Naked Notions' to my latest oil paintings, to counteract this conditioning.

A3 Print from Naked Notions Book 2020, 'Self-Protection'

The 'male and female gaze', is a term used in the art world to describe 'a way of viewing women'.

In contemporary media and the manosphere world, the male gaze still persists strongly, and women continue to perform as sexualised creatures with fragmented body parts, reduced to erotic zones... just 'boobs and butts'.

If we cannot stop men seeing women as objects, hopefully we can stop women seeing their own bodies this way. This is where much of the nakedness in my art practice comes from.

Painting these figures was not the same as a porn star performing a sex act, it was a personal invitation to see beyond the object of the woman, and into the meaning of the subject.

Much of art history and the painting of naked women made their bodies purely objects of desire and pleasure, until the feminist movement, when female artists began painting themselves and women's bodies in a way that honoured the female body and experience, beyond sexualised and externalised limitations.

I want women to inhabit their bodies, to talk about what is happening within them, to speak about their female health conditions and to sync up their cycles with the moon.

I want them to realise the great complexity of how they have been created, to see their bodies as tools for movement, connection, dance, sensuality and an incredible interior life that offers so much more to this world beyond their initial appearance or sex appeal.

I want them to no longer feel uncomfortable with their own nakedness, but to see the beauty in the depth of who they are as women. In the 'Phases collection', each pose and stance expresses a psychological and physiological state.

In 'She's Alchemising', the figure embodies power, resilience and growth. She holds the moon in full illumination, she is an overcomer, she has turned pain into power. Her stance reflects her boldness.

In 'She's Healing', the body addresses the often hidden and silent pain of menstrual issues. The grasping of her womb, and the uterus hidden in the moon’s reflection, speaks to a yearning for healing, and a determination to move beyond pain, while honouring this space as the place that creates life.

In 'She's Releasing', the body reflects the complex mental states women experience. She covers her face, her head, her mind, working through her past, her traumas and her mindsets, to awaken, to let go, and to reset. The illuminated moon behind her reflects this, she has brought light to her shadows.

In 'She's Embracing', the body communicates the nurturing aspect of the feminine, the ability to honour and nurture oneself. She has found safety and tranquillity within her body. She does not seek an audience or attention, she is grounded in her own world, symbolised by the moon she holds tightly as her own.

This collection explores Jungian 'integration' through the naked female body.

So please take off the male gaze with female art, so you can see the true beauty and true meaning of these works.

Grace xx