Male Gaze & Patriarchy

The male gaze as described by John Berger: "Women are depicted in a quite different way from men- not because the feminine is different from the masculine- but because the 'ideal' spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of women is designed to flatter him" (Berger 64). The male gaze is pervasive in art and popular culture because of of the social standing of patriarchy. Nowadays it becomes as a habit for men, their harassment feels normal to them. They believe that it does no harm to them (which doesn't) or the person that they are harassing. Patriarchy gave birth to the male gaze. If patriarchy would've never been a thing, male gaze wouldn't be a problem in history to even today. I've experienced the male gaze in mysterious ways. This one time at work a male, around his mid-twenties came to my lane (I'm a cashier) to check-out. As he walked up, he hovered over my monitor to read my name tag. He was so close to me that it made me feel uncomfortable and something was in my way so couldn't step back. Whenever he would say my name it would sound sleazy, and my name sounded so disgusting. I was so uncomfortable that I tried ringing him up as fast as I could so he could stop looking at me the way he was and saying my name in a very uncomfortable way.

Male Gaze

Patriarchy as defined by Bell Hooks 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 the maintain that dominance through various forms of  psychological terrorism and violence (Hooks 18). Though patriarchy is weakening it still manifests itself today. For example, women getting paid less than men (as the Guerrilla Girls state "In the 12th century England, men were embroiderers too, and naturally, they got paid more: women earned only 83 percent of what men earned per day. Believe it or not, this was better than it is today in the U.S: women average less than 70 cents for every dollar earned by men" (Guerrilla Girls 21) or wives obtaining their husbands last name. As a child, I always grew up with a feeling that someone was always going to be out to get me. My parents always saw me as weak because I was a female. As I read Bell Hooks text, I was able to relate with her because it was very similar to how she was raised as well as I. It wasn't always my parents but society as well. Society has a set idea that men are dominants and women are submissive. 

Scene from Magic Mike

SZA 

The female gaze empowers women today and a manifestation of this in film is Magic Mike. When the word "stripping" pops up people automatically imagine females on a pole but in Magic Mike; men also can display those talents. Females should have the empowerment to be just like men. If men can do it why shouldn't them. I believe that the female gaze arises awareness to all, it makes others be mindful of females go through in this society. The artist SZA speaks up about females embracing their sexuality in her album Ctrl. She believes that women should love themselves for who they are and not change their ways for men "to be valid. 

Works Cited 

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. British Broadcasting Corp., 2012.

“Understanding Patriarchy.” Understanding Patriarchy, by Bell Hooks, Louisville Anarchist Federation Federation, 2010.

The Guerrilla Girls' beside Companion to the History of Western Art. 1998.