ABSTRACT
In the western canon, religious, historical, mythological and genre imagery were contexts in which gender differences were visually mediated. It introduces the gaze of the male viewer, illustrating its involvement in defining gender difference. However, the nature of the subject provides a completely different perspective on gender difference and gender conformation. The transsexual body complicates traditional visual markers of gender difference and challenges the binary oppositions inscribed within them. Gender studies incorporating all perspectives of gender identity, sexuality and sex have most recently been allied to broader considerations of other markers of difference in society. Developments in gender studies since the 1970s have changed the way past art is interpreted. In the 1990s, studies raised questions about the stability of traditional gender differentiations male/female seeking to understand the construction of gender identities, sexuality and the body. Most recently, gender has been seen as just one of many concerns – including class, race and identity – central to postcolonial studies.
