Through Her Eyes Part II: Click Me, Touch Me: Selfie-Feminism and the Aesthetics of Desire
Editor’s Note: The female nude, omnipresent in classical painting, often reveals little about female sexuality. Painted by men for men, her body is a performance of compliance, her gaze cast downward in passive submission. The canvas becomes a cage. Her flesh—an offering. Her eyes—mirrors for someone else’s desire.
Mouth reflected in a mirror, 2004. Archival Pigment Print by Guido Argentini. Bel-Air Fine Art Geneva, Saint-Tropez, credits Artsy
La Pucelle d’Orléans (1840) erotic art illustration by Achille Devéria
The Monkey Painter, France 18th century by Jean Baptiste Deshays de Colleville, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France. Photo credits Bridgeman Images
But from the margins—from performers, queer artists, outcasts—come fractured reflections and radical reimaginings. And in that multiplicity, things get deliciously unstable. To see through the female gaze is not to reject eroticism—it’s to embrace a different kind of looking. A gaze that touches, listens, stares back. A gaze that insists:
I am not your muse. I am the artist. I am the subject. I am the story.
In Part I of this thread, we traced the herstory of feminist art and the evolution of the female gaze—intertwined revolutions that challenge patriarchal structures and rewrite the visual language of desire. Feminist art resists erasure; the female gaze reclaims the lens. It asks, What does it mean for women to look—not just be looked at?
Gustave Courbet, Nude Reclining Woman (Femme nue couchée), Oil on canvas,1862. Baron Ferenc Hatvany heirs private collection
L’Oasis ou Odalisque by Camille Clovis Trouille, 1942-43
Participant photographing model Jennifer Jones on Wildcat Hill - Images from the Photographic Nude Workshop 2022, Kim Weston Photography Workshops
Selfies and Softcore Power: The New Erotica is a Scroll Away
In our escapism-loving, hyper-visual digital age, fame and fortune aren’t forged through years of artistic mastery—they're made in a single swipe, a well-lit selfie, or a viral kinky thread. Today’s overnight icons aren't crowned by institutions but by algorithms. The next unforgettable #breaktheinternet moment could be an ass, a confession, a cry for help—carefully curated, masterfully monetized.
Bibi Babydoll - Click! single, 2023 (prod. Brunito Beats) via YouTube
Selfies #1, Blue-Tinted Erotic BIC Drawings by Spanish hyperrealist artist Juan Francisco Casas. Credits Scene360
We are living in a time where trauma has a teaser trailer, rehab has a rollout plan, and nude photos are released like mixtapes. Influencer culture has reframed the erotic as both spectacle and strategy. Sex is no longer scandalous—it’s branding. The naked body isn’t hidden behind velvet curtains—it’s framed by ring lights. And yet, amidst the clickbait chaos, a revolution simmers. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and OnlyFans have become modern-day galleries of erotic self-expression—at once empowering, problematic, and endlessly performative.
Bedroom #Selfie Print, Likes series, 2021, Oil on cardboard by Conrad Crispin Jones via Saatchi Art. Inspired by the addictive obsession of the #selfie
Leah Schrager, Selfie-Examination, 2015, from The Untitled Space series. Dye Sublimation on Aluminum Glossy Finish with Removable Censor Bar. Credits Artsy
Over 3.5 million creators now use OnlyFans—a virtual red-light district-meets-feminist soapbox—where the body is both product and protest. Here, the gaze is monetized but owned. Sex work, once demonized, is increasingly understood as a career path, an act of rebellion, a feminist strategy. Queer, kinky, femme, and fat bodies are pushing beyond modest ideals—and daring to define their own terms.
Become a Premium member now and check out the complete piece including:
- Erotica in the Age of the Algorithm: Pleasure, Porn, and Power
- Censorship, Curves, and the Politics of the Female Body Feminist Art 2.0: Selfies as Radical Self-Portraiture
- Pink Rebellion and Algorithmic Erotica
- Sex, Race, and the Gaze: Saartjie Baartman and the Booty Industrial Complex
- Kardashian’s homage to Grace Jones
- The Kardashians Conundrum: Agency or Appropriation?
- This Body is Political: The #IWantToSeeNyome Campaign
- The Original Dot-Com Domme. Burlesque meets broadband
- Old School, New School Softcore Icons: Viral Femmes and the Art of Seduction
- Sidebar Glossary: The Feminist Art Lexicon
Click HERE for episode 1 of the OnlyARTfans series, an adults-only portrait gallery, where erotic art meets fame, fortune, and the wild frontier of self-made sexuality.
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