Lee Miller's Challenge to Surrealist Objectification of the Female Body

Authors

  • Lindsay Presswell

Abstract

This essay argues that Lee Miller’s photography actively criticizes the Surrealist genre for its objectification of women using the genre’s own techniques. Her body of work allows for a reflection on the shortcomings of celebrated Surrealist practices such as fetishizing fragmented female body parts. This paper begins by analyzing how Lee Miller’s photography can be classified as Surrealism in the first place. Her work is then analyzed chronologically to demonstrate the way that she uses double-image, juxtaposition, and depicting women as outsiders in her photography in order to criticize other male Surrealist artists for their insensitive and uncompromising objectification of the female form. Overall this essay showcases Lee Miller as an expert in her field with emphasis on the way she infiltrates Surrealism to make an attack on its chauvinistic tendencies.

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How to Cite

Presswell, L. (2017). Lee Miller’s Challenge to Surrealist Objectification of the Female Body. Revue YOUR Review (York Online Undergraduate Research), 2, 131. Retrieved from https://yourreview.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/yourreview/article/view/40386

Issue

Volume 2 (2015)

Section

Abstracts & Posters

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