ABSTRACT
That we live in a visual culture is an observation so commonly repeated as to achieve the status of cliché, though the cliché in no way diminishes the observation. Modernity’s knowledge-system (what Foucault named the episteme 1 ) is governed by the gaze to such an extent that seeing commonly defines believing. A picture is worth a thousand words—and if the picture moves, as on television, it is worth a good deal more besides. We function in a culture of the optical imaginary, a virtual reality in which we are perpetually invited to desire, to fantasize, and, of course, as a result of desiring and fantasizing, to buy—which includes “purchasing” our identities from the metaphorical shopping mall of representations, stacked to the limit with options that all too often tend toward one-size-fits-all. Closer to my point, looking is powerfully invested in the human body as the tangible site of and sight for both being and identity, both of which modernity has structured as thoroughly sexual (not in itself an unreasonable gesture) and exploited for every ounce of fungible value.
