It’s no secret we live in a patriarchal society that is highly influenced by white supremacist culture.  In The Will to Change, renowned author on feminist-theory, Bell Hooks, poignantly describes, “Patriarchy is a political-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).  Examples of how this manifests in today's world include on average men make more money than women. Men hold more positions of power both in corporate settings and our judicial structure. Even qualities that are considered female, such as being emotional, are perceived as secondary or weak. In order to further understand this system of oppression and how it is perpetuated, one must reflect on how womxn are portrayed in popular culture, including movies, television, and literature. It is extremely helpful to investigate gender roles and the ways young men and womxn are raised in order to work to dismantle such deeply ingrained concepts within society.

There are many ways the unfair ideas of patriarchy are spread within society.  In an interview, Bell Hooks talks about the importance of popular culture, specifically the power movies and television have in daily life.  The author asserts, “Popular culture is where the pedagogy is. It’s where the learning is” (ChallengingMedia, 00:02:11 - 00:02:14). There is no doubt gender roles are exhibited in film and television.  There are many instances of actors being typecast into a type of role due to the sex or race. These preconceived notions of what a criminal looks like or what a cleaning lady looks like perpetuates a cycle within the psyche.  The argument of whether art imitates life, or vice versa, is important to discuss. Frankly, the two have a symbiotic relationship. The representation of many viewpoints is especially important in creating a more holistic depiction of life and society.  If young womxn only see very specific gender roles on television and in their homes, it is that much more difficult to feel the agency to differ from those limiting portrayals.

The idea of critically thinking about movies and television is not singular with Bell Hooks.  The Bechdel Test is a series of questions to judge movies with a feminist lens. The first question is does the movie has at least two speaking female characters in it?  One may be shocked to realize many movies do not past the test right there. The second question is do these characters speak to one another? And lastly, do these womxn speak about something besides a man?  With so few female producers in Hollywood, it’s no surprise a large percentage of movies do not pass the Bechdel Test. There is a database rating almost eight thousand movies with the Bechdel Test pass/fail here. It is reassuring to see the numbers growing for female-directed movies and programs. However, the gap is still far-fetching.

With tv and film producers predominantly being male (and white) it is easy to see where a sort of tunnel vision is created.  Womxn are being portrayed in popular culture by males and not by themselves. The viewpoint is shaped by the male and it warps the perception of femaleness and what that entails.  This male gaze was an established theme even before movies and television existed. The objectification of womxn in art is an age-old concept. In the 1970s, famed art critic, John Berger, outlined the legacy of the male gaze namely in art history.  Berger explains how the nude was painted by the male artist with the male viewer in mind. Womxn were treated as impassive sexual objects and then condemned to shame for their nudity. Berger highlights two important ideas on the way womxn were depicted in art.  First, the sexualization of the naked female body for the pleasure of the male viewer is notable. Second, the space womxn take up in the paintings and how they are positioned is incredibly important as well.

The sexualization of the female nude body is reoccuring theme in art history and has been adopted by advertising agencies through modern times.  Womxn’s bodies have been sexualized in order to sell products for too many years. One may argue this Playboy advertisement below from 1967 is not harmful because it is intended exactly for the audience that has been described, white and male.  The sexism is heightened because the producer felt the 

Sexist 1967 Playboy Advertisement for a Videocamera

misogynistic magazine is a safe space for this type of imagery. One must question why the male mind is being shaped to view the female in this singular manner. The producers of this advertisement could have chosen an infinite amount of ways to sell this camera that did not include the explicit objectification of this female model.  Unfortunately the legacy of objectification continues well into today. For a more recent example of female objectification, the contemporary clothing company, American Apparel, under the supervision of Dov Charney, was well-known for their inappropriate advertisements. The businessman had a reputation for using his powerful position to prey on young womxn in the name of fashion.

Sexist 2012 American Apparel Advertisement

Berger’s notes on the positioning of womxn in art is important to example as well.  The critic explains, "To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men. The social presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage within such a limited space" (Berger 46). In art and in life, womxn are taught to be small and dainty. A woman's beauty should allude to her presence but she should not exercise her power by these constrained standards. Berger explains, in art, womxn are always impassive just kind of laying there waiting to be taken. Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi has an enlightening TED talk, We Should All Be Feminists, that speaks to this topic eloquently. The author explains how raising boys and girls differently is incredibly harmful. She specifically talks about space and how young women are taught to function in the world. It is worth the twenty-nine minutes of your life. Trust me, or trust Beyonce. The artist sampled a part of this talk for her song, "Flawless."
I think about how I've functioned in the world as a womxn often. A few years ago I realized I've been sexualized for more than half the years of my life on earth. The moment it dawned on me was shocking and incredibly sad. I developed at a young age and the feedback to my sexual energy was easy to find. For many years, I identified with my sexuality as one of the main positive qualities I had. For such a long time, I felt sex was what I had to offer in a relationship. It took a lot of questioning and growth to realize my sexual energy is a part of me. However, it isn't the only part and the greater whole is way more complex than that. My sexuality is just a piece of the pie. Having media and society tell me time and time again through "positive" feedback that sexiness is the most important thing really distorted my self-perception. Nowadays, I make it a point to express my experiences to both men and women with the hope to provide another example for anyone struggling with gender roles, sexuality, and dismantling the toxic byproducts of patriarchy.

The positive aspect of today is there is a push back on the sexist attitudes of the past. Not only are womxn using education as a weapon to fight the long-standing patriarchal ideas that negatively affect them, but also womxn are creating visuals to oppose the sexist imagery of the past. There are more examples of female-created imagery in popular culture. Photographer, Lauren Wade, created a series of edited photos that objectify men instead of women. The results are powerful and thought-provoking. Seeing men sexualized simply looks silly and it makes the viewer realize doing the same to women is just that. Her work provides a sense of hope that things will change in time with the enlightenment of both men and womxn.

Original Tom Ford Fragrance Ad/Lauren Wade's Edited Ad

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books. 1972. Print.

ChallengingMedia. “Bell Hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Oct. 2006, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUuHFKP-9s.

Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy". Willing to Change. Atria Books 2004.