Catherine Lieser: » In my project “Defying the Gaze Regime”, I photographed people who defy normative gender roles by using gender-specific visual language. 

In the context of visual media, a regime of the gaze refers to the fact that what we see is never reality itself, but always a constructed and structured representation of reality. Everything we consume in visual media is subject to an invisible order that determines “what” and “how” we see. A gaze regime defines what is considered “normal” and “correct” and, consequently, what is “worthless” or should not be visible at all. A gaze regime thus structures social norms and cultural conventions and stabilizes power relations.

This also applies to the portrayal of genders and gender roles.
The term was largely coined by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who describes in his work “who is allowed to see whom, under what conditions, and how power is exercised as a result.” An early feminist analysis of the concept was conducted by the British film historian Laura Mulvey. She developed the idea of the “male gaze” and argued that Hollywood films, in particular, are structured from a male-heterosexual perspective and portray women as objects of desire..

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Since we live in a patriarchal society, the regime of the gaze and patriarchy are closely intertwined. For this reason, it is necessary to briefly explain the structure of patriarchy here.