La Mirada gained prominence through the psychoanalytic language of Jacque Lacan. But he emphasized only one type of gaze, the phallic gaze. Here I would like to spread various typologies.
I would like to start a narrative of La gaze de Lacan, lo phallic. The phallic has strong libidinal connotations, which means that the gaze is sexual. The phallic embraces male sexuality to its essence. It is typical of the male libido that when he sees an attractive woman, his adrenaline rises to the brain, as if it feeds the subject with a symptom of an excited libidinal gesture. For example, even today we use in the language the phrase: ‘she is good and not him’.
To comment on the female gaze, especially the erotic one, I would like to return to the language of courtly love. You have to literally please a woman to win her subjective affections and that is also a very difficult task. Courting a woman is the hardest thing in the world. You have to please her with words, cajole her with affection, and animate her soul with love. Sexuality for her, unlike men, is a secondary concern. Their genetic makeup is tuned to courtly love, and courtly love has not undergone any significant revisionism.
Next, I would like to introduce a new terminology for the gaze called the animistic gaze. This gaze is related to primitive man’s fascination with animistic objects and ritualistic totems. When one is subjected to an animistic gaze, one is overwhelmed, ecstatic, or intensely repulsed. The animist is entirely subjective and embraces the human tendency to be intensely emotional and subjective.
Then there is the causal gaze or the fixed gaze. For example: I stare at the chair and reflectively acknowledge its existence, but do not allow it to disturb the content of my consciousness. The chair exists, and I am already thinking about its existence.
The next look I would like to frame is the objective look. The objective gaze is analytical. One, through the gaze, reasons, causes, effects or solutions are investigated. The objective gaze is a scientific, mathematical, logical and philosophical gaze.
Next I would like to classify the gay gaze. I would like to present two new typologies derived from Jungian psychology. They are the anima for the feminine or lesbian gaze and the animus for the homosexual. What is the look of the anima? I would like to trace Jung’s footprints and leave him on the threshold of the archetypal feminine. The anima is female, invested with the female psyche and her libido. What is the look of the animus? The animus represents archetypal masculinity. We can see it at work in Michael Angelo’s famous nude sculpture of David. David adorns himself as a poetic youth with a metaphor that shows the beatification with the nude. The animus portrays homosexuality vividly.
