Female Sexuality and Corporeal Agency in Christian Schad's Zwei Mädchen

What is it about?

A study of female sexuality and corporeal agency, Christian Schad’s 1928 painting Zwei Mädchen challenges long-established notions of women’s sexual desire and of the depiction and visual consumption of the human body. It undermines gendered power structures, denying viewers the culturally endorsed role of the active male observer looking at the passive female figure and hence control of their visual and erotic experiences. As the models reject what Laura Mulvey termed “to be looked-at-ness,” the painting emphasizes women’s sexual independence, and autoeroticism emerges as a practice of female empowerment. Viewers are confronted with their own beliefs regarding women’s sexuality as oriented towards men and with the time’s changes in male and female social roles, including in the sexual arena. To analyze the work’s complex visual power dynamics and the role of the averted gaze, this study draws on works from film, gender, and sexuality studies, art history, and psychology.

Featured Image

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash