⚈ MALE GAZE AND PATRIARCHY ⚈

               The male gaze started coming about by a film critic named Laura Mulvey that described the sexual angle of females to males. The male gaze is based on a feminist theory which is the act of depicting women and the world. In the arts which are from a masculine perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer. The male gaze has three main visual perspectives which are known to be the man painting the artwork, the male character within the artwork itself, and lastly from a spectator sexual judgment at the image of the female. John Berger defines male gaze a whole different way by saying that the artwork is meant to be seen by a male’s vision which determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. John Berger wrote a book called ‘Ways of seeing’ which was published in 1972. When men look at women in an art piece it’s usually to look for something that they like; more like something like an object. The male gaze is known to objectifying and dehumanizing women which is unwanted in the art culture. That is not the only issue in society it was also the patriarchal system that plays a big part in gender roles within society. Another author named Bell Hooks' wrote a book called "The Will To Change," which talks about how society wants a male and a female to act. A male should always act tough because he always needs to be in control, whereas, a female is only kept as a housewife and to bear children.

Nell Gwynne By Lely 1618-1680

            The first thing that comes to mind when Berger mentions male gaze was how males paint the artwork and how women are mostly submissive when being drawn which shows the male is in power. Which simply means the way the viewer views someone being naked or nude. In Berger’s novel is states, “To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized to become a nude, A naked body has to be seen as an object to become nude, (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.” Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed as display” (Berger 54). What Berger is trying to get at by stating this quote was to show the one behind the camera can determine to see if the women are naked or not. It is for the viewer's point of view on the piece. Another statement that Berger makes was, “This nakedness is not, however, an expression of her feelings; it is a sign of her submission to the owner’s feelings or demands. (The owner of both woman and painting.) The painting, when the king showed it to others, demonstrated this submission and his guest envied him” (Berger 52). This almost shows how the artist wants to show his prize to others and to show the other views of what the cameraman has captured.

LA Grande Odalisque By Ingres 1780-1867

               On the other hand, Berger talks about how the women in the painting are either looking at herself using a mirror or looking out to the spectator which is considered her true lover. Berger states, “But the woman’s attention is very rarely directed towards him. Often, she looks away from or she looks out of the picture towards the one who considers himself her true lover- the spectator- owner: (Berger 56).  The women in the painting below show how much the man is looking at her as an object, but she is looking in the opposite direction to look at the viewer. Berger states, “You painted a naked woman because you enjoy looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your pleasure” (Berger 51). The function of the whole mirror and vanity perspective was to make the woman treat herself as a sight which is always sexualized. If the painter paints a mirror the whole painting changed, but the viewer views the woman as an object.

Bacchus, Ceres And Cupid by Von Aachen 1552-1615

Vanity By Memling 1435-1494

              John Berger illustrated that the man are the most powerful human beings and the women are vulnerable creatures. Berger states, “If a woman throws a glass on the floor, this is an example of how she treats her own emotion of anger and so how she would wish to be treated by others. If a man does the same, his actions are only read as an expression of his anger” (Berger 47). What Berger is trying to convey was that females are not important enough for them to express their sentiment about something, but is a man does it; it shows that the man is expressing his emotions with is considered masculine. Men are held at a higher standard because they are not allowed to show to much emotion with will cause them to become lesser of a man. Which ties to how patriarchy affects society.

Adam and Eve by Mabuse Early Sixteenth Century

                  In Bell Hooks’ “The Will to Change,” he described the ‘disease’ known as patriarchy. The meaning of patriarchy is a system where men maintain the power in society and women are instructed to be idle or in other words lazy. Hooks states, “Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. Yet most men do not use the word ‘patriarchy’ in everyday life” (Hooks 17). Hooks are saying how are you going to put men and patriarchy in the same sentence when they don’t even know the word, meaning, or even how to spell the word. It is completely non-sense of how high they put men and how little they know. Hooks states, “By highlighting psychological patriarchy, we see that everyone is implicated and we are freed from the misperception that men are the enemy. To end patriarchy, we must challenge both its psychological and its concrete manifestations in daily life” (Hooks 33). Not only are the women being effected by patriarchy; also, men are suffering by it too. To categorize people is to dictate and to have power on someone’s life which is not freedom. The men always have to be the tougher guy or the one in charge 24/7 and the women have to be lazy and submissive at all times because “she doesn’t know a lot like a man.” Not only do they choose to act like that, but it is tough by the parents. Hooks' states, "Both our parents believed in patriarchy; they had been taught patriarchal thinking through religion. At church they had learned that God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of men to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man" (Hooks' 18). Hooks' explains that patriarchy didn't just appear out of nowhere and that it happened ever since Adam and Eve were on this earth. It is passed down from generation to generation and it won't stop because it is embedded that it is the social norm. It is how life is supposed to be.

       In conclusion, Berger and Hooks' tie together how society sees men and women. Berger focuses more on the way the men look at the female which dictates how she looks in the artwork and Hooks' focuses on the role that the genders have to play to be accepted in society.

Works Cited:

Berger, John. (2008). Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.

  

     Hooks, Bell. (2005). The will to change: men, masculinity, and love. New York: Simon & Schuster.