Task Three / The Gaze / Gender Ads

According to David Chandler, 'The Gaze' can take a number of key forms in visual media. The most palpable typology is based on who's doing the looking and is as follows:

- the spectator's gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person, object or animal.
- the intra-diegetic gaze: the gaze of one depicted person at another, object or animal within the visual media in question.
- the extra-diegetic address: the gaze of a person depicted within the visual media in question, looking out of the frame, as though it were directed towards the viewer.
- the look of the camera: the way the camera appears to look at the people, animals or objects depicted, otherwise knows as the gaze of the photographer or filmmaker.

Other forms include:

- the gaze of a bystander: the gaze of an individual in the initial viewers surroundings, catching the initial viewer in the act of viewing.
- the averted gaze: a depicted person's evident avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist.

Finally, there are two more things to consider in relation to forms of 'The Gaze', and these are:

- the indirect address: represents an offer for the viewer in the sense that they are essentially an invisible onlooker and the depicted either doesn't know they're being looked at or act as though they don't.
- the direct address: represents a demand for the viewer (the object of the look) to enter into a relationship with the depicted, the type of which can be indicated via facial expression, among other things (Chandler, 1998).

http://genderads.com/page5/slideshow-18/

The featured advertisement is for Kellogg's Pep, a whole-wheat breakfast cereal introduced in 1923. Given that Pep became one of the first fortified cereals in 1930 (Wikipedia, 2014), it's likely that this particular advertisement is from that period. With the aforementioned forms in mind, this advertisement features an intra-diegetic gaze, that is to say that the depicted husband and wife are looking at one another. The spectator's gaze also comes into play, however it's an indirect address because the viewer's gaze isn't being returned.

Bibliography

Chandler, D. 1998. Notes on 'The Gaze'. [e-book] David Chandler. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze02.html [Accessed: 18 Mar 2014].

Wikipedia. 2014. Pep Cereal. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep_Cereal [Accessed: 18 Mar 2014].

Genderads.com. 2014. Bodies. [online] Available at: http://genderads.com/page5/slideshow-18/ [Accessed: 18 Mar 2014].