Male Gaze and Patriarchy

     The male gaze is something that has not only been studied for centuries in history, but it is also something that is very prevalent in the modern world. It is the concept of looking at a woman as only a sexual object and disregarding her existence as a human being. The male gaze comes from the perspective of a man who solely puts a woman in a piece of art or film to objectify her and please himself and any man who wishes to look. The male gaze is seen throughout art and popular culture because it is a concept that has been fetished for so long, that it has become normal to objectify women and get the desired reaction. John Berger writes, “In the art-form of the European nudes the painters and spectator-owner were usually men and the persons treated as objects, usually women” (Berger 54). This quote means that the male gaze in art began when male painters used female models as their objects. Instead of describing their bodies as naked, one without any clothes, they were described as nudes. The difference between these two statements is that naked is simply naked but a nude clarifies that the women in the painting must be looked like an object and nothing else. Her role in that position is not to showcase a beautiful female body or fulfill a desire she may have herself, but to comply with the imagination of whatever the man looking at the painting wishes. Some of these paintings often show a women’s body in unrealistic and impossible poses which means that she, herself is not of any importance to the painting but merely a used figure. 

Car Commercial objectifying women

Budweiser commercial objectifying women 

The female body has become a tool in society, and the media uses it to its advantage in many ways. Since looking at females as objects have become so easy due to artists, it is an idea that has been passed down from generation to generation. Fast forward to this generation, it is mostly seen in movies, tv shows, and commercials. Often directors use females who are dressed provocatively to grab the attention of the viewers and make money off of a lustful appearance. Majority of Budweiser and car commercials showcase women as a decorative tool in order to trigger a man’s desire to want her as well as want whatever else is being advertised. This goes to show that the women in the commercial are not being paid for her ability to act, or her intellectualness. She is simply being paid to put on little clothes and as much makeup on as possible. She is also being paid for the body she has and the power her body has on the male viewers.

Patriarchy is the belief that men must hold a certain position in society that is different from a woman. Patriarchy is oppressive to both men and women as it is an epidemic that exists due to things being normalized over time and people are too afraid to stand up against or protest it. It is oppressive to women because it does not allow them to cross any boundaries that are already placed in set for them for their gender. For example, being allowed to go out less than her older brother or husband. It can be oppressive for males because it limits them from expressing anything that is not considered “masculine” by the majority of the world. For example, by crying. Bell Hooks describes Patriarchy for a man as “to be accepted and affirmed in a patriarchal workplace and rationalized by his desire to get ahead” (Hooks 23). Often, boys who are sucked into a Patriarchal world, do not wish that life upon them, but to fit into a standard that gives them respect, they must comply to the injustices of the world. Though they may feel oppressed in this system that forced them to feel like they must have the upper hand at all times and that power is a tool that they need to carry with them everywhere. Lots of men do not realize that hating on Patriarchy is a way to unleash them from this oppression that they are stuck in. Women, on the other hand, it can be the most painful part of their lives. For example, patriarchy has normalized rape culture so much to the point that rape is often not about the crime itself, but about what the women were wearing and analyzing whether she was asking for it or not. It has become a way of saying that boys will be boys and women must do whatever possible in their ability to stay away from something that is inevitably going to happen to them simply because it can.

Link: 

https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/what-is-patriarchy/

This article helped give me a better understanding of how male gaze is seen today.

        Works Cited:  

Berger, John. “Ways of Seeing.” Chapter 2 & 3. Penguin. 2008.

Hooks, Bell. “Understanding Patriarchy.” The Will to Change, pp. 17–33.