Framing gender: windows through which femininity crosses over
Guimarães, Thays¹; Fontenele, Sabrina²
¹Architecture and Urbanism, Unicamp, Brazil, ²Architecture and Urbanism, Unicamp, Brazil
Abstract:
In modern domestic spaces, sexual identity is considered an inherently human quality. This study proposes a reflection on windows as an active element within this domestic universe and in architecture — a symbol for borders for gender and freedom. Windows mediate what is public and what is private and materialize the separation between houses and cities, women and men. Therefore, it is also a materialization of how women and men manifest spatially. This article investigates how windows have been considered a space of femininity throughout history, becoming instruments of power as they reveal the intimacy, sexuality and privacy of women and determine their suppression and confinement to the domestic environment. These small openings constitute a bigger object, the house, an instrument of domestication. We explore the window through different media — such as literature, cinema, painting and architecture —, and interpret it in connection with the presence and representation of the female figure. The window is an instrument for the domestication of gaze and acts as a form of control. It creates a frame for voyeuristic observation, which is predominantly male in the field of architecture. In the images of women, its mimesis denotes duality and an imbalance of power. Thus, this paper uses the window as a means of understanding concepts that are scarcely discussed, such as ways of inhabiting, gender policies and their repercussions in urban spaces.
Keywords: window; gender; domesticity; women