Voyeurism: Watching Is Power

“Voyeurism” sounds dirty, even though it’s technically neutral. It means getting sexual pleasure from watching, often secretly, often without touching.

But the truth is, as psychoanalysis reminds us – we all start this way.

Freud: The gaze starts early

Freud said voyeurism becomes “perversion” when watching replaces all other sexual interest, especially if it’s focused on genitals and powered by disgust.
But he also insisted: looking is at the root of desire – and when it shifts to the whole body, it becomes art, admiration, beauty.

Art History: The female nude as a public secret

Western art is full of nudes designed not to express the subject’s freedom – but to satisfy the viewer’s hidden appetite.

One example: “Susannah and the Elders” – painted over 1000 times. Two men spying on a woman bathing. The moral is justice. But most painters focused on Susannah’s vulnerable body.

Another: Edgar Degas’s bathers. His women aren’t seductive – they’re bent, awkward, unposed. But the viewer? Still watching. Still outside.

Cinema: A dark room built for watching

Film theory knows: cinema is designed for the voyeur.
You’re alone, in the dark. The characters don’t see you. But you see everything.

Some directors made this dynamic explicit:

• Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954): a man spies on his neighbors from his apartment.

Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960): a serial killer films women in their final moments.

A Short Film About Love (Kieslowski, 1988): a boy watches his neighbor through a telescope, falls in love.

Monsieur Hire (Leconte, 1989): desire from a distance, without consent.

Laura Mulvey: The gaze has a gender

In 1975, feminist theorist Laura Mulvey dropped the iconic line:

“Men look. Women are looked at.”

Cinema splits visual pleasure:

• Male = the one who watches.
• Female = the one being turned into a visual object.

The woman on screen isn’t real. She’s a fantasy, built for male desire.

But it’s more complicated than that

Some feminist critics took it further, claiming Western art is built to spy on and control women’s bodies.
But others pushed back – pointing out that the female body represents more than sex: motherhood, power, disgust, longing.

Freud also said voyeurism isn’t just about other people – it’s about the self.
We watch others to understand ourselves.

Final thoughts:

• Watching is natural – but it’s never neutral.
• It shapes how we see others – and how we’re seen.
• Art, cinema, porn, advertising – all depend on this dynamic.
• Voyeurism is not just a fetish. It’s a mirror.
• The question isn’t whether you’re watching.
  It’s whether you know why