The Judgement Of Paris

‘The Judgement Of Paris’ is an acient Greek myth which was one of the first beauty contests.

This image holds a lot of power in the hands of Paris as he was told to pick out of three goddesses which one is the most beautiful and to present her with the apple. He holds a lot of power as he is able to pressurise the females to work harder to recieve the apple from him, he is able to make the feel insecure and is able to hurt them by not chosing them. The body language in the goddesses show which one of them are more confident and pleased with herself as he was able to do that for her. The other two females in the image show their disappointment and disgrace with him and with themselves.
I also viewed another three images based on ‘The Judgement Of Paris’ by Joachim Wtewael, Peter Paul Rubens and Fantin-Latour. I did not find that these images did not represent the story as well as the this one by Peter Paul Rubens as he shows the body language of the goddesses towards one another and towards Paris.
The females in the image are seen as nude and not naked, these two words are seen to be the same but mean two completely two different things. Nude is related to the subject of art and is not to be seen as offensive as naked would be as sexual object and used more a the male gaze. They are used very differently but still have the same approach to art and real life. Even after so many generations the male gaze still exists but has now slightly transformed and now the female gaze has become into ast but still does not hold as much power as the male gaze does as there are so many magazines and newspapers that appeal to the male gaze.
‘This Judgement Of Paris’ represents today’s society as females do many things for themselves to look glamourous to have males around them to accept them, which is like the image of the goddesses doing whatever it takes to recieve the apple. This type of power for men still exists today but has also has swapped roles to as women hold power for men to be a certain type and look a certain way to be accepted by them.
After viewing the image ‘The Judgement Of Paris’ it lead to the contest that still happens today ‘Miss World’. Miss World is a contest that women involve themselves to become a certain character that will be accepted by society which is what society is like today.
“Studies of ’spectatorship’ focus on how ’subject positions’ are constructed by media texts rather than investigating the viewing practices of individuals in specific social contexts” quoted by Daniel Chandler in ‘Note On The Gaze’ (2000). He explains here that females are shaped by the media instead of being themselves which influences females to become what they see on television instead of being their natural selves.