Visual Fetishism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the gaze and the fetishism are both strongly related to the viewer?s misrecognition of what he or she sees. It analyzes how fetishistic viewing gives a sexual value to a material object and makes the viewer experience sexual gratification through the gaze. It also evaluates howthe relation between sexuality and the object is arbitrary and how the viewer?s interpretation makes the object a stimulus for sexual arousal. It shows how all stereotypes are fetishes in the sense that they reveal a double play between the archaic affirmation of wholeness and similarity and how in racial terms stereotypes of the other, i.e. characteristics of the non-Western that are fabricated by the Western, are used to form a fetishized image of the other through the gaze.

From the Paper:

"Erotic representations of the Other, the black or the bronze skinned people, are acceptable while it is interpreted as irritation to demonstrate White people's sexuality (Hyndman 2000, 9). Lutz and Collins show a remarkable example for this statement by saying that display of white breasts in National Geographic can become less irritating by darkening the skin tone (1993, 82). Despite its attractiveness, the sexuality of the Other is interpreted as a sign of immorality by the Western gaze (Mirzoeff 1999, 159). This lack of morality is understood as an opposition to Western domestic bourgeoisie values of nuclear family and justification and indication of their need to be "civilized" by the West (Hyndman 2000, 9)."

More papers on Visual Fetishism:

• Research Proposal # 95986 : "Visual Communication"
• Book Review # 75275 : "'Rickshaw'"
• Book Review # 53175 : "Venus in Furs"

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