Sherman’s film stills series show the woman as unguarded. This highlights the voyeuristic gaze of the observer. The subject however is startled by something off screen, dropping her persona for just a few moments exposing the feminine as a masquerade.
Moving onto her dolls series, the feminine is seen as grotesque – the opposite of perfect, far removed from the image that cosmetic companies which to aspire to. The female body is also a site of anxiety. For Freud it is the anxiety of castration to the male viewer. To ease it the body is turned into a fetish, which conceals its castration. It is made into an object (quite literally through these dolls). Women are merely objects to be looked at.
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