{"id":414,"date":"2015-03-06T00:38:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T00:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=414"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:51:12","slug":"benefiting-from-sexual-objectification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/03\/06\/benefiting-from-sexual-objectification\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefiting From Sexual Objectification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upon viewing Gaujean\u2019s etching, <em>\u201cThe Apparition\u201d<\/em> the Victorian <em>Femme Fatale<\/em> comes to mind. The sensual depiction of Solome is one that can be paralleled to the Femme Fatale as described by Jan Marsh<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>, \u201cShe allows that artists gazed, fascinated but repelled, at women of a curious frigidity, cold but sensual, erotic but invulnerable.\u201d Solome\u2019s \u201ccold but sensual\u201d stance and searing gaze at St. John is one that fully embodies the Femme Fatale, as she is depicted standing erect with her hands reaching out to posses St. John. Additionally, Solome is portrayed as \u201cinvulnerable\u201d because she holds the most power out of everyone for having just summoned St. John\u2019s head on a platter. However, Solome defies Marsh\u2019s \u201cboiled down\u201d Femme Fatale. Discussed by Marsh, \u201cWomen are rendered decorative, depersonalized; they become passive figures rather than characters in a story or drama\u2026 Women are reduced to an aesthetic arrangement of sexual parts, for male fantasies.\u201d The depiction and story behind Solome is not one consistent to Marsh\u2019s definition. Solome\u2019s dance that she performs in order to be granted a wish, St. John\u2019s head, not only fulfills the male desire but it also fulfills her own desire. Yes, Solome is sexually objectified as she uses a dance to coax her stepfather, but she does it knowingly so. Her sexual objectification is not used solely to fulfill \u201cmale fantasies\u201d but fulfills her own desires as well. Additionally, Solome\u2019s intense gaze at St. John, rather than at the viewers observing the etching, protects her own authority over her own self and body.<\/p>\n<p>The story behind the etching displays a kind of sexual advocacy not seen before. The fact that Solome utilizes societal objectification of her body in her favor is very interesting. I believe that this image could have really inspired Victorian women to cultivate their sexual influence over the patriarchy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.victorianweb.org\/gender\/object.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upon viewing Gaujean\u2019s etching, \u201cThe Apparition\u201d the Victorian Femme Fatale comes to mind. The sensual depiction of Solome is one that can be paralleled to the Femme Fatale as described by Jan Marsh[1], \u201cShe allows that artists gazed, fascinated but repelled, at women of a curious frigidity, cold but sensual, erotic but invulnerable.\u201d Solome\u2019s \u201ccold &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/03\/06\/benefiting-from-sexual-objectification\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Benefiting From Sexual Objectification<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,108029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-spring-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}