The Real and the Digital: Female Agency and Resisting the Male Gaze in Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Works

Author

Kelly Chou, CUNY City CollegeFollow

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Art History

First Advisor

Lise Kjaer

Second Advisor

Craig Houser

Keywords

Feminism, identity, gaze, technology, cyborg, internet, laserdisc, artificial, photography, film

Abstract

This thesis focuses on three major feminist works by multimedia artist, Lynn Hershman Leeson (b. 1941), that grapple with the construction and potential of female identity. Considering the works within the context of Laura Mulvey’s seminal text “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” this paper will attempt to elucidate how Hershman Leeson’s works have engaged with the male gaze and its social and cultural implications on female identity in visual spheres. This research demonstrates how Hershman Leeson’s efforts to understand the limitations and boundaries for women reflect the same phenomenons observed by Mulvey within “Visual Pleasure.” Rejecting this, Hershman Leeson also reimagines the internet and new technologies as an alternative path in defining female roles, engaging with Donna Haraway’s concept of the cyborg.

Recommended Citation

Chou, Kelly, "The Real and the Digital: Female Agency and Resisting the Male Gaze in Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Works" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1014