Intrusive Beauty

Muhlenberg College

Presented at The Baker Center of The Arts Senior Capstone Exhibition

The Muhlenberg College Senior Capstone Exhibition is a culmination of artistic exploration and academic achievement that showcases the creative works of graduating seniors. This exhibition serves as a platform for students to present their individual projects, reflecting both their personal journeys and their engagement with various works.

By Caylyn Downey

“This series was for my final semester project for photography. I originally started this project with a goal to leave viewers uncomfortable by using intrusive imagery and sounds. This was an inspiration for me because of my struggle with OCD and intrusive thoughts. However, as I have worked on this project more, my ideas have slightly changed. Although the footage is still intrusive, my message and overall meaning of the video and photographs are about how women are perceived by the male gaze in media, specifically in pornogrpahy. Porn sites are typically catered to men and the male gaze. This inspired me to create a series that challenges and ridicules pornography, and to make the viewer uncomfortable because we are not used to seeing images of women portrayed as “dirty” and “disgusting” on screen. Film and photography often portray women as feminine symbols of beauty, and anything that steps outside that norm is viewed as unusual or “brave”. This puts a lot of pressure on women, not only to dress up for the spectatorship of the male gaze, but to be pleasing and submissive. Femininity has always been fetishized in the popular media. Women are forced to be desirable and ladylike under the spectatorship of a public audience. Throughout this series I try to show that being ladylike has no relation to desire and beauty. And to subvert the power dynamics of what sexy means. Why should the male gaze decide what sexy is?”