Visual Culture by Alexis L. Boylan

Author:Alexis L. Boylan [Boylan, Alexis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: visual culture; visual studies; visuality; visual turn; culture; images; photography; photo; critical race studies; queer studies; gender; cotemporary art; visual technology; media; representation; identity; surveillance
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2020-07-17T00:00:00+00:00

The female form is freighted, always, by exposure, by expectation, judgment, and the act of being looked at.

In taking hold of the visual dialogue of the selfie, she has taken her body, which was made available for the sexual consumption of everyone by Vivid Entertainment, and then repeatedly sexualized her own body with her own hands. In this way she has weaponized and monetized for herself the ways women and their bodies have historically been contained and manipulated to evoke pleasure for men, a pleasure that was often taken from women without their consent and certainly rarely to their benefit, especially monetarily. Additionally, she has reimagined and adjusted this vision into new phases of her life, as mother and business executive.

Critically, Kardashian West’s work is done through a medium that requires the viewer to acknowledge her own hand in the making. She seldom edits out of the pictures her stretched hand holding the phone, or hides that she is looking in a mirror to take the picture. If anything, these details are crucial to her image-making. The viewer is meant to understand this, because then they can see her in the actual physical act of making the image. Who is in control? Well, whoever is taking the picture. Thus, she visually reminds the viewer that she is managing their access. As journalist Ruth Curry notes, “Kim Kardashian makes money on the labor women have been historically asked to do for free.”15 Indeed, the Kardashians are all very attentive to the heretofore “hidden” aspects of feminine grooming and display. Having everyone look at you takes work, and the selfie, in fact, documents this labor. Kardashian West destroys the fantasy of the woman’s body as natural. The selfie is, at base, an image of labor. She is working, and you are watching her work. (It is also not outrageous to suggest that through this kind of marketing and success Kardashian West has birthed the now ubiquitous form of the YouTube makeup tutorial, hair styling videos, and other self-care entertainment, whose significance and popularity lie in lifting the veil from what was previously known only to the very rich and famous. It is also worth noting that most of these newly monetized YouTube stars are women, queers, and people of color, suggesting that Kardashian West’s influence has opened the doors to others who have historically been outside of the sphere of producing, and being paid for, visual content.)

A sticking point for many in this reading of Kardashian West is that she and her mother may have been the original architects of the sex tape’s sale and that her claims to violation were only part of the performance. This charge has been made so often and in so many ways that it has taken on the sheen of truth, despite continued denials from the Kardashians. But the conflict between “guilt” and “innocence,” “strategic” or “victimized,” remains visually narrated through Kardashian West’s body. It replicates much older misogynist claims that women aren’t violated because they always want to be seen, desired, exposed; their consent is always implied, even when they say “No.

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