Think of that movie scene where the pretty girl is walking past a construction site and all the men are stopping to feast their eyes on her as if she was specifically placed there for the pleasure of the men in the movie and in the audience. As a viewer, you almost feel like you’re the one being watched as you follow the camera focusing on her body and her outfit you can even feel the eyes on her as if you were standing in her shoes. She is there as an object to please those men and give them a nice image to see while they’re hard at work. Now that you have that in mind, realize that it is not just a movie scene. Sadly, the male gaze is something women are faced with every single day whether it is implicit or explicit, intentional or not, the male gaze is there.
The male gaze is the act of depicting women as objects instead of seeing them for women. As John Berger puts it, its something we have never recognized before but a woman’s constant awareness that she is being watched as if she were on display has a high impact on our social and political understanding of ourselves and the environment around us. Berger writes “But in them [nude paintings] all there remains the implication that the subject (a woman) is aware of being seen by the spectator. She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her.” The male gaze has a constant presence in society to this very day, especially in art and pop-culture. The ABC show “American Housewife” received multiple messages of hate and criticism when it was pitched because of the plot of a mom/wife who does not fit the stereotypical housewife. Prior to being aired, the show was criticized (mostly by men) and many believed it would fail because it was not an appealing show to watch when in fact the show is as successful as ever because more and more women and men relate to it than almost any other show with similar plots. In this case, the male gaze and the patriarchal hierarchy that controls Hollywood failed, but that is a rare occurrence.
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| ABC's American Housewife Promo |
Similarly, most ads are created through the lens of the male gaze. Suit Supply’s “Shameless” campaign for the fall/winter of 2010 is a great example of the destructive degradation that women face daily through the male gaze. An ad trying to sell suits is using a naked woman to do so. There is no correlation between the two except the disgusting influence that patriarchy has on society which leads to the male gaze terrorizing women everywhere.
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| Suit Supply "Shameless" Ad 2010 |
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| Suit Supply "Shameless" Ad 2010 |
The male gaze continues to be pervasive in art because it is an intricacy that falls under the umbrella of patriarchy. Patriarchy is a big theme in various conversations because the heterosexual white man seems to have the most important say in many things that do not concern them and this mindset shapes society in a way that causes tremendous waves of consequences. Bell Hooks defines patriarchy as “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 the maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence” (18). Why is it that men are more dominant? That they are stronger and smarter and less emotional? Patriarchy pushes the barrier between men and women even further apart and has done so for years even dating back to the start of Christianity. Because of the patriarchy, there are stereotypical gender roles set for both men and women that are extremely oppressive. Men can’t cry, the only emotion they can show is anger. Women can’t be too sexual, or not sexual enough. Men run the country and the household, and a woman must not dare dream of being at the same level. The repercussions of patriarchy go on.
While the attempts to dismantle the patriarchy and male gaze have not been 100% successful, there have been many attempts to counter these views. The female gaze, for example, is a film concept of portraying men as objects just as women are portrayed through the male gaze. This is a great concept that has sprung in rebuttal to the patriarchy and the disappointing male gaze. Many artists (filmmakers especially) are now focusing on depicting men in a way that will hopefully help realize the influence and impact of the male gaze.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books. 1972. Print.
Hook, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy". Willing to Change. Atria Books 2004.
Ihnat, Gwen. “American Housewife Blasts the Generic Life Suggested by Its Title.” TV Club, TV Club, 20 July 2018, tv.avclub.com/american-housewife-blasts-the-generic-life-suggested-by-1798189043.
Sims, David. “The Value of the 'Female Gaze' in Film.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 Aug. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/female-gaze-lincoln-center-series-women-cinematographers/566612/.
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