Privacy, property or propriety : The case of "pretty portraits" in late nineteenth-century America

Journal article


Lake, Jessica. (2014). Privacy, property or propriety : The case of "pretty portraits" in late nineteenth-century America. Law, Culture and the Humanities. 10(1), pp. 111-129. https://doi.org/10.1177/1743872111423179
AuthorsLake, Jessica
Abstract

The advent of the photographic camera in the mid-nineteenth century enabled the “likeness” of an individual to be lifted with relative ease from its possessor and rendered with uncanny precision upon material. This fracturing of the subject into transportable, reproducible objects threatened a novel kind of harm, especially for women. This article brings new research to bear on the origins of the American “right to privacy” (such as the Federal 1888 “Bill to Protect Ladies”), arguing that the foundational 1890 article by Warren and Brandeis was but one of numerous attempts to remedy the unauthorized circulation of women’s photographic portraits. The gendered nature of this “right” means it must also be contextualized within women’s history and the broader struggle for equal citizenship. The “right to privacy” cannot simply be dismissed as a purely conservative doctrine invoking feminine modesty. In its demands for the legal recognition of those pictured as active subjects, rather than “pretty” objects, as individuals rather than nameless faces, as possessors of valuable property, rather than as valuable possessions in themselves, I argue that the “right to privacy” challenged the masculine prerogative of copyright law and pushed back against the reduction of women to silent, compliant images that was occurring on an industrial scale, in the late nineteenth century.

Keywordsprivacy; property; gender; photography; portrait; citizenship; publicity; advertising; women’s history; copyright
Year2014
JournalLaw, Culture and the Humanities
Journal citation10 (1), pp. 111-129
PublisherSage Publications Ltd.
ISSN1743-8721
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/1743872111423179
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84893301293
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range111-129
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online20 Dec 2011
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https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8w026/privacy-property-or-propriety-the-case-of-pretty-portraits-in-late-nineteenth-century-america

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