Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
How Do Women Look?
Instructor(s): Katie Hauser, Art History
Description: Do blondes have more fun? Are lesbians really “invisible”? How DO women
look? Women have long been subject to an excruciatingly exacting visual evaluation
from both men AND women. In this class we will examine the representation of women
in a variety of media (visual art, television, films) spanning the 1970s to today,
considering how these images, through emphasizing weight, race, and sexuality, objectify
women, encouraging the view to visually “consume” and appraise them. However, women
also actively look—at themselves, at each other, and at men. We will consider whether
a woman’s gaze can ever be as active as a man’s, and if there might be alternatives
to the controlling, patriarchal gaze.
Course Offered