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| Men's perfume advertised with a picture of a naked woman. |
The male gaze is the (sexual) objectification of women for men’s pleasure.
John Berger elaborates on this by describing the way women have been depicted
in art since the beginning of time leading up to today. Generally, the concept of
the male gaze can simply be described by the phrase, “men act, women appear”
(Berger, 47). With this, he is indicating that the way women present themselves
has much to do with how they are treated. They are expected to present themselves
in a way that is pleasing to men, so that men can show them what they can do or
provide for them with their actions.
An example of the male gaze is this painting of a naked woman holding a mirror in
her hand. It illustrates how society’s aim is to convince women that the purpose of
their existence is being visuals for men to enjoy.
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| Vanity by Memling (1435-1494) |
According to Bell Hooks, “patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that
males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed
weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over
the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological
terrorism and violence” (Hooks, 18). An example of this is Bell Hooks’ story
about how her father beat her for playing a game meant to be played by boys
and being better than her brother at it. In addition to that, her mother attempted
to normalize the occurrence by reminding her that she had already warned her
about the power men hold: in this case, the power her dad has to decide what
happens in the household.
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| This picture ties the two structures together and incorporates the female gaze in the top picture. |
Ultimately, patriarchy and the male gaze complement each other. Society has always been structured in favor of the actions of men in relation to the presence of women. I have become familiar with these concepts throughout the years simply through my everyday experiences. My now deeper understanding of the two structures has encouraged me to be more observant of the world around me; this can be as big as our political structure and other worldly issues, or the observation of commercials and cereal boxes. I also notice myself often rebelling, much like Bell Hooks, whenever something does not make sense to me within the structures.
Among the countless contemporary arguments that may have sprung from the
following structures, I would like to discuss the female gaze. It is important
because it is a representation of women acknowledging the male gaze and
projecting their own perspective to the world. This is powerful and pertains
to the past structures in society, because it allows women to express themselves
with art, media, etc., and show the world a different concept that was once
ignored. The female gaze empowers women to act as opposed to watching
themselves like patriarchy and the male gaze has programmed them to.
The following link elaborates on the female gaze and how others may define it.
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.
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