‘The “true” nature of woman has provoked both desire and disgust in equal measure’. Discuss.
The female body has consistently been a topic of discussion and consequently, a subject for art throughout western culture. Though the female body is such a popular subject, art historian Rosemary Betterton states that “The ‘true’ nature of women has provoked both desire and disgust in equal measure.” This statement opens up a massive paradox in how the female body is seen by the viewer, particularly in art. The female body is sought after and glamourized, such as in depictions of the mythological Venus. However, when a real woman is depicted in her natural form, it is considered scandalous and obscene. The female body that provokes desire is often an unrealistic, possibly mythological figure, with a coy sense of sexuality and idealized forms and beauty. Interestingly, the female body that provokes disgust is often a true depiction of the female body, showing the body in its natural form with realistic features, such as the anatomical sex organs that are tabooed, but are also the origin of all humanity. This contradiction is closely related to the male gaze, or how women are sexualized for the pleasure of men, but also expected to be domestic and feminine. Despite the layers to this paradox, this essay will attempt to unravel how artists depict the female body and what constitutes desire versus disgust.
Images of the female that provoke desire and are also considered acceptable depictions of the body are those of Venus, nymphs, and other mythological women. Desire is acceptable in mythological women, such as Venus, because they are not meant to represent women of the real world. Their meaning is more symbolic, and inviting for the viewer to look at. One example out of countless depictions of a mythological Venus figure is The Source by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, completed in 1856. Depicted is a nude woman in contrapposto stance, giving the painting “the immobility of a marble statue.” Ingres drew heavily on classic statue, perhaps for “desire to create a figure of ideal beauty.” She stands in a spring, surrounded by plants, and pours water out of vase. The woman is the epitome of an idealized and mythical female body. Her body is a perfect and elusive body, with no hair or other things that could be considered imperfections. Because her nudity is coy and her body is flawless, it is desexualized, and therefore acceptable to view. The natural setting she is in could also symbolize how the woman is one with nature, and the source of humanity and the universe. The woman is not here to depict a crude and vulgar image, but to uplift spirits and encompass what it means to be a feminine ideal. This image shows how the female body provokes desire, but the paradox becomes evident when compared to an image with a similar motif, but a more crude subject matter.
Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde, painted in 1866, blatantly showed a close up of an unidentified female’s genitalia. The painting was produced in celebration of the female body for a Turkish democrat, but was not seen by the public eye for years. Despite this, the painting is notorious. The woman’s legs are spread out, exposing her vagina and her pubic hair. Her torso is the only part of her body fully in view, her face and identity therefore obscured. This painting was a break from tradition in the depiction of the female body. Rather than being a mythological and impossible body, this is a real body, in the true nature of woman. As expected, this image was seen as shocking and provocative, and “one of the most unusual and notorious works in the history of art.” L’Origine du Monde crossed the threshold of sexual desire in the image of the female nude into the one of disgust, bordering the pornographic images on the time. The disgust by the female anatomy can be explained by Freudian psychology. Female genitalia is seen as the “the locus of male castration anxiety,” also known as the castration complex. The obvious lack of a penis in the painting plays on this Freudian anxiety, “implying a threat of castration and hence unpleasure” (Mulvey). With this explanation, L’Origine du Monde shows the body of a woman, considered disgusting because of her blatant lack of male genitalia and therefore lack of pleasure, as an object needed to be dominated. However, more contradictions come into play with the title, The Origin of the World, showing woman as a necessity to the survival of the human race. Therefore, the paradox between desire and disgust is made prevalent again. There is sexual desire with the provocative female genitalia, yet it is considered disgusting because of the male gaze and the aversion to explicit images of the body.
Betterton’s statement that “The ‘true’ nature of women has provoked both desire and disgust in equal measure” summarizes depictions of the female body throughout art history to present day. This statement opens up such a large contradiction in how the female body is perceived, both in art and in life, that only a small portion of a much larger argument was covered in this essay. Comparing The Source by Ingres and L’Origine du Monde by Courbet explores this conflict in perception of the female body, with one image being idealized and the other controversial. However, by examining these images, the massive paradox of desire and disgust has only just begun, and this topic can be explored in more depth, as it is still an issue in society today.