http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/ingres/ingres.valpincon-bather.jpg
In Susan Bordo’s “Unbearable Weight” Bordo claims that she finds the “I view our bodies as a sight of struggle, where we must work to keep our daily practices in the service of resistance to gender domination.” To break this quote down in a sense is a little dense. Throughout the essay Bordo discusses the pressures and social norms that go along with a woman keeping her body looking the way it is in order to be right with society. In doing so the resistance to gender domination that Bordo is speaking about is in fact resistance to societal norms. The struggle comes from how the body is interpreted through society and how the human mind wants their body to be viewed, which in part creates a psychological test that pushes many to the breaking point.
Jean Auguste Domingue Ingres discusses the struggle against gender domination that Bordo speaks of with Valpinçon Bather in the essay by Leppert. In it Leppert discusses the lack of visual imagery presented in the painting by Ingres (based on the fact that the viewer can only really see her back side) and the intrusion sense that is felt by the viewer because this is a scene that is felt private by the woman. Leppert goes further in discussing hearing and sight stating that hearing is more feminine than sight and in this sense the power of sight is given to the viewer which makes the viewer feel uncomfortable for looking in on a woman in a private moment, while hearing is given to the woman with the image of her ear being turned to hear something.
So, what does this all mean? The significance of the woman having the power to hear is showing how she knows she is being watched with out having to look. The masculine gaze that is coming from the viewer is being matched by a much more subtle underhanded act of hearing from the woman. The gender dominance struggle that Bordo speaks of is being illustrated in Valpinçon Bather in part by the contrasting acts of the more masculine: sight and the more feminine: hearing and by empowering the woman to inflict a sense of uneasiness in the viewer shows how in this battle of gender dominance the woman has won.
Interesting explanation...I did the same painting and spoke about the power of the viewer. I think the unseen viewer has the power over the woman in the painting because her relaxed body shows she does not know she is being watched, but your point about being able to hear the viewer is another interesting way to analyze the picture.
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