The Gestures and Body Language of Prostitutes - Coursework Example

The Gestures and Body Language of Prostitutes and Number Month day, year 2 Throughout history there has been a powerful relationship between prostitutes and artists. Prostitution is the sale of the most intimate aspect of the physical presence of a person. Prostitutes can represent for the artist the realism that the everyday illusion of life hides in the lives of those who see themselves above the prostitute. As a woman trades her physical being for security within a marriage, as the businessman sells his integrity for the sale, and as the artist trades his point of view and embraces the popular to get the job, the human experience is riddled with metaphorical instances that can be pried open when the prostitute is captured on canvas, film, or the cinema. The way in which the prostitute reveals him or herself through body language and gestures reflects the complexity of the human experience as it expresses power, submission, raw reality, and control. The relationship between artists and prostitutes has developed, primarily, because of the importance of the nude in artistic achievement. In polite society, it has traditionally not been considered appropriate to take off one’s clothes for anyone other than a spouse or a doctor. Therefore, prostitutes have been used for studies in the human body because they have been willing to disrobe for money 1. However, the association is deeper than just the business transaction. The business of prostitution is in putting forth the most intimate part of the body as a product, while the artist puts forth the most intimate parts of his interpretation of the world for the world to browse. 2 Beverly Solomon, wife of artist Pablo Solomon describes that changes in a prostitute as they are used to pose for a piece of artwork. She says that the prostitute is given the 3 opportunity to express themselves in ways that has a dignity that may not be available in their normal work. The artist is therefore is eager to find the beauty that comes through in that moment. Solomon says “Perhaps the artist wants to show the thread of beauty and hope that the soul of the prostitute is still clinging to”.3 In looking at paintings of brothels, the way in which a prostitute is portrayed is in the angle of the body and the sensuality with which she tempts her potential clients. According to Franits, prostitution became a topic in Dutch painting in the 16th century in reference to the story of the Prodigal Son. However, the theme of prostitutes began to develop into portraying them in inns and taverns where they were shown as temptations for leering men.4 An example of this is Dirck van Baburen’s Loose Company (1632)5 which shows a woman who is almost innocently happy with her companions, her clothes slipping away, her face radiating, and one of her male companions leering at her suggestively. As the female leans toward her potential customer, unashamed of her lack of clothing, almost oblivious to her less then reputable state, the male perspective is revealed in her mannerism. In this portrait, she is more the prey than is her customer. However, this is not the way in which the relationship between the prostitute and the customer is actually experienced. Jane Fonda, in the movie Klute (1971), gave a revealing and poignant cinematic gesture of her character’s trade which in a single moment betrayed the reality 4 beneath the illusion. In mid coitus, and in the midst of verbal expressions of passion, she looks at her watch. This scene creates a commentary on the nature of prostitution, that it is the purchase of an illusion. The simple gesture of looking at her watch writes volumes about the nature of the relationship between the prostitute and the patron. In her role, Fonda is able to create a contrast between the “dehumanizing experience of auditions and her pleasure in the control she has as a prostitute”.6 The lead character in Theodore Dreiser’s novel, Sister Carrie accepts money from a suitor and the description of the process creates a relationship between herself and the man who gives her the money.7 She becomes seduced by the money itself. Her character begins to change by virtue of this moment in her life. Doyle says that “The change that comes over her is as permanent as it is mysterious. Every step she takes away from domesticity and honest work seems both inexplicable and inevitable”.8 This step has put Carrie into a position where her emotional life has become attached to her economic life. Doyle states that “Characters like Carrie bridge the sexual and the economic and allegorize a modernization of both realms”.9 This represents the sense of how easily the seduction into closing that gap can be accomplished. Where in one moment she has not sold herself, in the next she has accepted this concept. As art contemplates the prostitute, a sense of reality that is deep and raw can be explored 5 for a complexity of underlying themes. Picasso’s work, Les Demoiselles of Avignon (1907)10, reveals five women who stand in ways that display themselves, four with an arm or arms raised over head as if to display the breasts and the body. The hips are tilted and the seduction of angles is used to create the illusion of allure. The images have a seduction, even while the cubist method has distorted them. The images are not delicate. A sense of control and sexual power is present while each face can be interpreted with a sense of sadness and resignation. What is captured is the essence of the power and control that is exerted by taking money from another for sex, while the corruption of the soul is shown in the attitude that is revealed in the face. In creating a piece of performance art that could reveal the truth beneath a porn stars visage, Deep Inside Porn Stars, from a genre of performance art called prostitute performance, makes a commentary on the social line between women who are porn stars and women who are not porn stars. The first part of the performance has six women discussing their life as a porn star and while they are having this discussion, a subtle movement in taking off their clothes is then followed by them redressing in conservative clothing.11 The commentary furthers the realistic truth that the line between women who sell themselves and those who live under a veil of illusion that they do not sell themselves is very thin. According to Bell, the piece reveals the dichotomy of the choice to sell oneself as it both empowers and degrades at the same time.12 In examining photographs of prostitutes, both real and staged, the strongest difference is that the real prostitutes look no different than any other person on the street. In a composed 6 photo that portrays a prostitute in a short skirt, boots, and a bright red wig, she stands over her potential customer, in control of her situation and imposing her sexuality onto him.13 On the other hand, a photograph by Mary Ellen Mark, one of a series of photographs taken in India, shows a prostitute who is with a customer behind a curtain, her face and shoulder visible, looks like any young girl might look with the sleeve of her t-shirt being almost masculine with navy, white, and orange stripes. She could be at a slumber party or giggling with her sisters if it was not for the obviously older hand of a man with the tip of a finger on her lip.14 The clear age difference and the dichotomy of her childlike face with the ominous hand at her face creates a poignant portrait of what is lost in the prostituting of the young. In a photograph from the Associated Press in relation to a vote on decriminalizing prostitution in San Francisco, California in the United States,15 a woman named Patricia West, an admitted prostitute, stands in front of the City Hall. The photograph shows her in jeans and a t-shirt, a simple and unassuming outfit, her body posture simple as she stands for her portrait. The photographer has captured her in a simple and unassuming pose. She is not cocking her hips in an exaggerated and seductive manner, nor is she showing off her body. Her face has a slight smile, but with a sadness in her eyes. The prostitute is accused of selling a product that belongs solely to her. The emotional aspect of her sexuality must be diminished in order to sell her physical body. In the examples of the pieces of art and photographs, this resignation to the loss of the emotional equity of sexuality 7 in exchange for a commodification of sexuality takes its toll. As can be seen in the photographs of real prostitutes, they are not exaggerated characters with movements and gestures that are carefully choreographed for effect, but rather they are human and represent as just human. The objectification appears to be a male construct that almost approaches designating them as a new species as they present themselves for purchase. Picasso acknowledges the hollow soul that results from the indignity, while van Baburen allows his prostitute to appear glowing and eager. From the point of view of the artist, the soul of the prostitute has been damaged as she has sold a part of herself that should not be for sale. In creating his art as a sellable commodity, the artist must also sell a part of him or herself. As history has shown, a connection has been established between art and prostitution. As artists reveal, there is a sadness in the prostitute that cannot be denied. In the photograph of Patricia West 16 the sadness has been revealed by the photographer. The way in which a prostitute stands when displaying her body as it is for sale reveals angles and curves that best suggest seduction. However, the face of the prostitute reveals sadness and loss. The way in which a prostitute stands shows a sense of power and control, while the hidden pain that is caused when dignity is sold can be seen in the eyes. As in the example of Klute, the prostitute creates an illusion for her customer, giving a performance that will satisfy a need. While she must create a body language that invites her customers, she cannot fake her true purpose. She has created an economic relationship with her body which must close the deal. When she angles her hip toward a man and tilts her head, she is just selling. 9 Bibliography Bell, Shannon. Reading, Writing, and Rewriting the Prostitute Body. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Doyle, Jennifer. Sex Objects: Art and the Dialectics of Desire. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie: A Novel. Charleston, S.C.: Bibliobazaar, 2007. Franits, Wayne E. Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Solomon, Beverly. “Artists and Prostitutes: Soul Mates with Scars.” Ezine articles for authors. http://ezinearticles.com/?Artists-and-Prostitutes---Soul-Mates-With- Scars&id=1046732 (accessed 30 April 2009). Tasker, Yvonne. Working Girls. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis, 1998. The Associated Press. “San Francisco Prostitution.” Breitbart news source. http://www.breitba rt.com/image.php?id=app-9ab58b8f-b3ca-423a-b676-694c62a72b2a&show_article= 1&article_id=D93V4U0O0 (accessed 30 April 2009). 9 Appendix A Illustrations Figure 1. Dirck van Baburen’s Loose Company (1632). Available at http://www.essentialver meer.com/lost_vermeer_self_portrait_baron_rolin/procuress_self-portrait.html Figure 2. Pablo Picasso Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Available at http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Les_Demoiselles_dAvignon 10 Figure 3. Getty Creative. Available at http://www.slate.com/id/2200669/ Figure 4. Mary Ellen Mark (1978). Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/arts /design/15boes.html?ex=1292302800&en=548b858ac46527b3&ei=5090&partner=rssuse rland&emc=rss 11 Figure 5. The Associated Press. Prostitute Patricia West. (2008). Available at http://www.breitbart.com/ima ge.php?id=app-9ab58b8f-b3ca-423a-b676 694c62a72b2a&show_artic le=1&article_id=D93V4U0O0 Read More