The Humiliation of the Supposed Weaker Sex

                Women: often seen as the beautiful, delicate and mesmerizing sex between men and women. It has rarely to never been heard that the male sex is as such; beautiful, delicate and mesmerizing. Men have always been thought of as the dominant sex because women are oh so soft and emotional, which in fact, this is all lies. Women were always pushed to the side to cater to the men who were their supposed authoritative figures, even if this societal rule was never discussed; it was always implied. Because of this, the art world that we all came to know is filled with artwork that just doesn't raise the bar for women as it should be.

Raphael's La Fornamarina, (1518-20)

                John Berger, author of the book Ways of Seeing, discusses this ongoing paradigm that is referred to as the male gaze. Usually found in paintings, photographs, or anywhere that a person can be depicted, the male gaze does not stray too far. The male gaze, as Berger puts it, is the way women are portrayed as sexual objects for the enjoyment and pleasure of men to look at. Many paintings and propaganda, be it from years ago to the present, have this stigma of the male gaze present. Berger describes this as a way to portray women as sexual objects so that the male viewer can get amusement out of viewing mostly naked women. He writes, "The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight" (Berger 47). Berger makes the statement that women are no longer considered a human being, but a sight. Something for all men to gaze upon and critique or admire. Famous Italian painter, Raphael, painted this woman, who was said to be his lover and served as a model for this painting (Carrigan 2017). There is nothing wrong with having a lover and having her pose nude for a painting; what is wrong is that Raphael's model is not the only woman in art history to be depicted as such a sight. She could have posed fully clothes with Raphael right beside her. Though, Raphael was a man and he was trained to believe this was the way to paint woman that were not religious figures. This is still seen today in many especially the fashion world. A great example is Calvin Klein. Calvin Klein is a well known clothing brand that also sells undergarments. They are known to advertise their underwear in a highly sexual manner. The picture below is a great depiction in which a woman in posing in underwear is staring directly at the viewer. The woman may be someone who owns their sexuality, but that does not mean she stops from being seen as a sexual object. Men viewing this image will completely strip this woman of her vanity and self expression and make her disappear and define her as a just a sight.
                 Tying in with the male gaze, the topic of patriarchy can largely contribute to this notion of the male gaze. Patriarchy has always been the dominant societal structure that many civilizations have followed. A matriarchy is a very rare find, but there were ancient civilizations that followed women's rule. Other than those few exceptions, patriarchy has
always been a painstaking implied notion that has undermined women for centuries. It has been this implied, derogatory rule that has defended the roles of women for basically all of our lives. Famous writer bell hooks explores the world of patriarchy in her book The Will to Change in where she explains how men are also influenced by this world of patriarchal rules. She defines patriarchy as "a political-social system that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females..." (hooks 18). While this definition seems very degrading and pessimistic, there is not a word written that is untrue. Patriarchy is a contagious thought that has been passed down from generation to generation , even if it doesn't benefit half of the world's population. hooks further strengthens her argument by providing her own life examples of how she was forced to always fit into her role that the patriarchal society set in place for her. She writes how her father once beat her because she wanted to play a supposed boy game alongside her brother. She was beaten by her father and reassured by her mother that she needs "'to accept that you are just a little girl and little girls can't do what boys do'"(hooks 21). How must a little girl feel when she is constantly being oppressed for the normal and humane actions that she wishes to act upon, such as playing a simple game of marbles? Patriarchy affects many including those women who are victims os such a plague.
                Women have had it very hard throughout history, and we must revisit these hard times throughout history in the art that define us as people. Art is an expression we all find a muse in, and the fact that we must see these works of art that undermime women is so heart wrenching. The future is still bright and change does happen. We must continue to fight for equality until we see that men and women are seen as equals and not as one preying on the other one for their own pleasure.






Carrigan, Margaret. “The 10 Best Artworks by Raphael, Seraphic Genius of  the Renaissance-Ranked.” Artnet News, 10 Aug. 2017, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/10-greatest-artworks-raphael-seraphic-genius-renaissance-ranked-1047047.
Hooks, Bell. (2005). The will to change: men, masculinity, and love. New York: Simon & Schuster.