“Men survey women before treating them.” This is significant because a woman’s worth is directly related to how she is viewed by the men around her. This puts a disproportionate and unfair amount of pressure on women to ensure that they are portraying the most ideal image of themselves to whoever is around. According to John Berger, male gaze is when a woman is depicted in a sexual manner done for the pleasure of a male audience. This takes away any idea or notion of how a woman views herself by making her focus on the way that men view her. In the text we see a plethora of nude women painted for the viewing pleasure of an audience which in this case would most likely be a man. One thing that these paintings share in common is that each female subject is aware that she is being watched and even joins us in looking at herself. In one of the pictures, Susannah is taking her bath, she is being spied by the Elders and us while looking back at us looking at her. In another version, she is looking at herself in a mirror, thereby joining the audience in spectating herself. These two images show that women have to be aware of the way they look since they know that is how they will be judged. This also helps paint women as vain by showing them to be always aware of their looks. In a patriarchal society, male gaze has a prevalent position due to men being in control and making decisions that helps them remain in power. Women in such a society will always be viewed as an object so placing them in art mediums will be for the benefit of men. When companies advertise a product that is aimed at men, there always seems to be a desirable woman present suggesting that if you acquire said product you will have a beautiful woman like that. We can see this with a car commercial that depicts a man picking up his ‘hot’ girlfriend who seems disinterested about the world around her but is well aware of the fact that the man and the audience at large is admiring her. She then becomes something that can be attained by losing any semblance of self identity. With the ever growing presence of social media, women now have to be aware of how they appear on their personal pages. When uploading a picture, she has to be aware of the kind of suggestions that the image is making. This is due to the fact that men are going to be the ones surveying and commenting on the pictures and knowing this, a woman would have to be careful only to put out art that provides a view that is beneficial to the way that men treat her. The image of the woman below working on the car is hyper-sexualized for the benefit of the audience which judging by her in the hood of a car, is a medium targeted at men. In contrast, oppositional gaze takes a look at black women as being media spectators. This is developed due to black people's rights to gaze being repressed. The more this is attempted, the greater the desire to gaze is. This gaze is important because it teaches blacks to look to show resistance or oppose being confined to the status of the surveyed.
According to Bell Hooks, patriarchy is “the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation.” (Hooks 17). What is meant by this is that most men are no aware of what this word means and how it pertains to them and those who have heard about it, view it as a weapon feminist use to attack men. This is fitting since in a male dominated society, the men do not need to be aware or well versed in a topic that is not negatively impacting them. We see patriarchy assert itself in the way that men carry themselves as a powerful dominant force that leads the household, heads places of employment and even demands that the male bloodline determine identity of children through surname and in some cultures by disregarding a mother’s bloodline and placing the child in the father’s family tree. Patriarchy is not only detrimental to women but is dangerous to those its design to help keep privileged. “Patriarchy demands of men that they become and remain emotional cripples. Since it is a system that denies men full access to their freedom of will, it is difficult for any man of any class to rebel against patriarchy,...” (Hooks 27). Through patriarchy males are not allowed to pursue interest of their that might be considered feminine. There is this pressure lingering that forces young boys to do things that a man would do regardless of whether he is interested in it. I for example have always loved the color pink, but have refrained from enjoying the color due to being teased by boys my age who viewed it as a girls color. This even creeps up into adulthood in emotional situations because men were not taught how to properly process their feelings or were shamed by expressing it, leaving them no choice but to bottle it up and have it all erupt in spurts of violence and anger. Although most men do not actively promote patriarchy, however they do succumb to a lot of its expectations thereby helping push its agenda over women and society at large. The image below shows ways that women are being silenced when they speak up about their negative experience due to male aggression. The victims are essentially blamed by suggesting that they brought the situation upon themselves due to the way they carried themselves or a lack of effort in exiting the situation. This does nothing but protect the powerful male figure.
Works Cited
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books. 1972. Print.Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy." The Will to Change. Atria Books: 2004
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