The Peepshow and the Voyeuse: Colette’s Challenge to the Male Gaze

The peepshow is a device that dates back to medieval times. Often displayed by street vendors, it consisted of a wooden box with a hole through which a paying customer peered to discover scenes depicted through pictures or puppets, often accompanied by storytelling. In addi- tion to their evident entertainment values, peepshows also allowed spec- tators to learn about exotic cultures through scenes illustrating faraway and mysterious lands, such as China or India. In the 19th century, optical inventions like the kinetoscope (1888)1 replaced the use of static pictures with moving images, marking a significant turning point in the depiction and visibility of the body and its movements as entertainment. The nov- elty of moving images and the opportunity to observe “private scenes” fostered the emergence of an interest in hitherto secret “body practices/’ By the time the first kinetoscope parlour opened on Broadway in 1894, it was evident that the accumulated repertory of images “appear[ed] to have already anticipate[d] the predominantly male audience of the peep show arcades.”2 Male-orientated entertainments, such as the dancers Carmencita and Annabelle Moore, the contortionist Madame Berholdi, boxing matches or hunting scenes, predominated. As peepshow arcades spread throughout the United States and France, some parlour owners were arrested for operating allegedly indecent kinetoscopes.3