The Male Gaze and Patriarchy

        When talking about any concept, I believe it is important to break down all aspects of it to fully understand the meaning. Take the term “male gaze” and break it down. “Gaze” is a concept that is used for visually analyzing something and how an audience observes the people or person presented. This gaze can be broken down in to the surveyor and the surveyed. The surveyor being the audience and the surveyed being the people or person being observed. Adding the word “male” to the term indicates that this audience is comprised of males. Reading Berger’s work, it becomes clear that the male gaze was and still is present in a vast majority of art and media across all platforms. To sum a large concept up in to a simpler meaning, the male gaze is typically when men occupy an audience of some sort of visual media that either objectifies or sexualizes women. This sort of objectification dehumanizes women in turn making them feel subordinate to men in society. Berger explains how this construct changes the way women think of themselves in relation to others around them when he says:

She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others,          and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of          as the success of her life. Her own sense of being in herself is supplemented by a sense of being          appreciated as herself by another (Berger 46).

The male gaze has created this false construct that a woman’s image of herself and self-esteem is build off of the “gaze” men appose upon women. This also confuses the idea of “beauty” because it becomes difficult to differentiate between what men and women consider it. This is seen in “The Judgement of Paris” painted by Rubens, Paris awards the apple to the woman he finds most beautiful. Thus Beauty becomes competitive. Those who are not judged are not beautiful. Those who are, are given the prize” (Berger 52).

The male gaze can be attributed to another term “patriarchy”.  This term is a concept that men are naturally dominate allowing them to exercise this power in society. Men are taught that they are entitled and that they are superior to those around them. Bell Hooks defines patriarchy in her work “The Will to Change” 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 (Hooks 18).
The patriarchy can be dated back through religious texts. People are taught that God is a male and that, “God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man” (Hooks 18). Women are brought up being told what a woman is “supposed to do” and how she is “supposed to act” to and around a man. This very concept can be directly tied to the male gaze. Men are brought up thinking they have this sense of entitlement which in turn also makes them think it is okay to objectify and sexualize women in the visual arts the way that they do.

Reading further in to these topics I find myself spotting the male gaze and patriarchy across all sorts of mediums whether it be television or hundreds of years old paintings. This awareness has also prompted me to start thinking about some of my own actions and art that I create in my free time. Things I once thought were “normal” seem to actual line right up with the male gaze and although at the time I was unknowingly feeding in to this, I now plan on going back to right my wrongs and reworking my art stray away from these concepts. While writing this post, I was also holding a conversation with my mother (who says she “would always recognize that certain things were made for men” but never knew there was a term for it) about the topic. She brought up a movie called “Thelma and Louise” because to her it was one of the first female positive movies she could remember watching with her cousins. I agreed to watch it with her and did some research on it myself only to find that there is a plethora of information regarding this movie and a reinvented “female gaze”. The film stars two women in bad relationships who go on a vacation filled with action, comedy, and sex. The female gaze is not an exact counterpart to the male gaze. Even though the intended audience is female, their gaze is not geared toward objectifying and sexualizing men. This movie portrays the female gaze by giving a female audience these powerful women smashing gender boundaries and expressing their anger towards the patriarchy.

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing; a Book Made by John Berger. Viking Press, 1973.
Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. 21 Dec. 2004

Rubens, Peter Paul. The Judgement of Paris.

“Thelma & Louise.” IMDb, www.imdb.com/title/tt0103074/mediaviewer/rm2942679808.

Male Gaze and Patriarchy

The male gaze is when men depict women as sexual objects, which dehumanizes them and makes them feel subordinate to men. In art, this means that women only exist to please men and women know that men observe/judge them. The male gaze is so pervasive in art and popular culture partly due to the ideology of patriarchy. Berger stated, “One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women … Thus she turns herself into and object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight (47). Women are aware that they are being looked at by and they have to carry themselves in a specific manner. Unfortunately, they know that the way they look or act can cause a man to act a certain way. Berger mentioned how beauty becomes competitive and it is determined by the man (52). This complicates the idea of beauty because many male artists would depict what they thought was beautiful and women felt the need to try to obtain this beauty. Berger stated, “Her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another” (46). This relates to Berger’s argument that women seek the approval of men and if they are called beautilgu by a man, then they are worthy. Hence, if a woman is not deemed beautiful by a man, she is worthless (in the eye of a man). The male gaze emphasizes the woman’s body and nothing more. Berger stated, “A man’s presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. His presence may be fabricated, in the sense that he pretends to be capable of what he is not. But the presence is always towards a power which he exercises on others” (46). By “others” Berger is clearly referring to women and how they continuously get oppressed by men. Many of the artists exaggerated women’s features and made these features impossible to obtain. This supports Berger’s argument that men seek power and want to be in control at all times. By painting these “perfect women”, they are further controlling/manipulating women and the idea of beauty. From their perspective, these male artists have all the power by creating these images. They know that women will try to achieve these looks. Knowing that they will never obtain these looks, men can  continue to be superior and in control of women (psychological manipulation). Berger mentions how these male artists painted women with mirrors to make it seem that they want to be looked at. This idea of a mirror was used to change the narrative and not make men look like “pigs” or “sex driven animals”. This supports the idea that men will find a way to put the blame on the woman and say that she was “asking for it”.

Edouard Monet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass” (Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe). This painting shows that the woman is aware of the male gaze. Both men are dressed and the woman is depicted as a sexual object. In a sense, the men think a nude woman at a picnic is “normal”. If the men viewed her as a human and not an object, they might have a different facial expression (ex. one of shock). https://www.manet.org/luncheon-on-the-grass.jsp

The male gaze is still pervasive in art and popular culture because it became a societal norm. Not to make any excuses or allow this behavior, but this became a “normal” way of life and in a sense it is expected for men to act like this. However, it is necessary to call out this ideology, be aware of it, and create some change. Even though today’s society is more progressive, we still see the “male gaze” on a daily basis. An example how the male gaze still occurs in popular culture today is music videos. In many hip hop and rap music videos, women are viewed as props and sexual objects. These women are in the background and are viewed as objects instead of humans. Most of the time in these videos they have very little clothing and are looked at very sexual. Many women fear walking down the street because men stare at them and objectify them (including catcalling). Men looked at women in such a man centuries ago (whether in art or daily life) and this continues today.

As mentioned before, the male gaze exists because of patriarchy. Men feel entitled and are taught that they are superior. 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 maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence (18). Women are constantly depicted as weak and need the saving of a man to survive. It is evident that men use power and violence to maintain their control over women. An example of where patriarchy continues to exist is the workplace/careers. In the twentieth century, women could work outside the home. However, this came with many restrictions. Women have broken many barriers, yet many people view women as less competent than men. When one asks someone to picture a doctor and a nurse, gender usually comes into play. Most people associate a doctor with a male and a nurse with a female. Even when one googles the word “doctor” almost all the images are of male doctors and when googling “nurse”, majority of the images are of females. In the medical field, doctors are at the top of the chain and nurses report to the doctors. Women are “supposed” to be nurturing, while men are “supposed” to be more powerful and knowledgeable. Hence, females are in positions where they are subordinate to men. This is not to say that there are no women that are doctors, however, there is still a stereotype in today’s society. As a whole, we are moving in the right direction, but there is still a lot to improve on. Today, men still earn more wages than women and hold more political positions than women. All of this stems from patriarchy.

In film theory, they started to discuss the “female gaze” and how the female's perspective is just as important as the males. When comparing both genders, females are a minority. One of the issues with this is that women from other backgrounds are even further marginalized and oppressed. Understanding and embracing intersectionality is important, however, in society these different systems are looked down upon. Belonging to a specific gender group, having a specific sexual orientation, or belonging to a different racial group can cause one to face more obstacles and hardships. Intersectional feminism helps women of color feel empowered and allows others to see that they share similar stories and experiences. When discussing contemporary art, someone like Mickalene Thomas is a great example of someone who sheds light on intersectionality and embraces being a woman. Carol Kino discusses how Mickalene Thomas uses her platform to speak about emotions and essentially the “female gaze”: “Yet Ms. Thomas didn’t seem especially interested in showing off her new paintings and photographs. Instead she wanted to talk about the volatile emotions that had possessed her while making the work” (1). The female gaze allows women to express their feelings and show what is important to them. Essentially, women are taking back the spotlight and giving attention to what they want and not want men directed them to. The female gaze is further explored today to show that women are far more than a sexual object and women are capable of just as much as a man is.

Mickalene Thomas’ “She’s a Beauty”. This piece shows what beauty is to Mickalene Thomas and she shows what it means to be a black woman. She uses her identity and translates them into her work. The woman can be fully dressed and can still be considered beautiful. This shows that beauty is subjective and confidence plays an important role in this. The women in this piece looks confident and aware of her being. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/design/12kino.html

Works Cited

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

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

Kino, C. (2009, April 7). A Confidence Highlighted in Rhinestones. The New York Times.Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/design/12kino.html

male gaze/ patriarchy

Nikki Ford

Male gaze/ patriarchy

The Male Gaze can be characterized as the propensity for the media and various forms of art to automatically assume the perspective of a heterosexual male, only portraying women in a sexualized manner. In "Ways of Seeing" John Berger goes in depth to describe the effects the Male Gaze has had on society. The portrayal of women in this manner promotes an aggressive and dominant attitude in men towards women and teaches them that women are for sex and nothing more. They begin to look at every woman with eyes that survey them and define their worth through their appearance. After that, they become nothing more. Berger states that "Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at" (47) to describe this exact notion. In one form of older European art, the painter, who was a male, would paint women who was posed naked. Berger is able to expose the flawed nature of content like this and is able to explore how the content is a key contributor into the formation of the male gaze.  He states that "In the average European oil painting of the nude the principal protagonist is never painted. He is the spectator in front of the picture and he is presumed to be a man. Everything is addressed to him. Everything must appear to be the result of his being there" (54). Clearly, signifying that females are objects of sex to men and that they must assume an attractive and sexually appealing position for them, essentially seeking their approval. This idea imitated in the art interprets itself into society by applying itself into the mind of men and women who are observing it and effecting their psychology. Men start to think of themselves as the surveyors and women begin to see themselves as the object. It is important to note that men are also the creators of this form of content and therefore are enforcing an agenda in which they can oppress women and maintain dominance by making women believe that they must constantly seek approval from men. One can definitely see how male gaze is pervasive, due to how males portray women, and look at women in a sexual way. There is a lot of male gaze on social media.

Patriarchy is the idea that men are naturally dominant over all others (females) and that they possess the ability to practice this dominance in society over all others due to their superiority. This also goes hand in hand with the Male Gaze, it is due to this idea of patriarchy that the male gaze has emanated and thrived. This idea is prominently held by men and they use this idea to further impose their agenda of oppressing women and maintaining dominance due to their incessant desire for power. This idea, deeply rooted into the mind of most men, has had long lasting effects on society and our psychology. In "Understanding Patriarchy" Bell Hooks is able to delve into these effects and explain its importance from her own personal experience. She describes how due to the dominant role the man played, the women had to play a submissive role in order to be compatible. Which in turn, normalized the belief that boys should be aggressive and can be violent while girls should be graceful, "feminine" and gentle. Bell Hooks remembers how when she reacted with "rage" she was told that it was not ladylike. However, she notes that whenever her brother responded with rage "that his ability to express rage was good but that he had to learn the best setting to unleash his hostility...he was taught that rage was permitted and that allowing rage to provoke him to violence would help him protect home and nation"(19). Bell Hooks notes this double standard as one of the many effects of "Patriarchy". This double standard can also go the opposite way and effect timid and flamboyant men. Bell Hook also goes into speaking about the negative effects of patriarchy on men. She states that it has "denied males access to full emotional well-being" (31) due to the fact that men have to remain tough and strong. To end patriarchy, it is the responsibility of the male and female to recognize these notions that may subliminally sit rooted into their minds and actively work upon eliminating them throughout their everyday lives.

Many men can agree that popular conversation topics amongst men include objectifying and sexualizing women and have experienced, whether doing it themselves or seeing men do it, male gazing. It is okay to recognize the faults in their past and admit to their mistakes, but after being enlightened about patriarchy and male gaze we must work consistently to eliminate it from our everyday lives. It is difficult for many men to "care" about this, due to the fact that it does not affect them and they believe that it is "made up" in an effort to defend their insecurities and own personal guilt of patriarchy.

Work cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Chapter 2 & 3. Penguin. 2008. Print. Feb. 2, 2019.

Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy." The Will to Change. Atria Books: 2004.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.shadyladiestours.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/shady-ladies-male-gaze.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.shadyladiestours.com/feminist-concept-male-gaze/&h=814&w=1364&tbnid=TSuUk-gr9C_EvM:&q=male+gaze&tbnh=155&tbnw=260&usg=AI4_-kSk0dyb5fA5GLpuWVaciWaEu4YH8A&vet=12ahUKEwi24qDq16LgAhUGVN8KHfskAYIQ9QEwAHoECAMQBg..i&docid=umP8mETi80jwUM&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi24qDq16LgAhUGVN8KHfskAYIQ9QEwAHoECAMQBg

https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&biw=1440&bih=772&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=z4FYXN3lK-bn_Qb1zJFI&q=patriarchy+male&oq=patriarchy+male&gs_l=img.3..0i8i30l2j0i24l2.22143.23877..24488...0.0..0.183.701.1j4......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0j0i67.aEZ-fIo6wSw#imgrc=LB8ELcWuyT4loM:

Male Gaze and Patriarchy

The Male Gaze and Patriarchy

The male gaze is the way a male’s perspective is used to portray women as objects, whether it be in art, literature, or film. This gaze may also be a woman’s conscious awareness that she is constantly being watched or judged through a male's perspective. John Berger believes that the male gaze causes women to “consider the surveyor and the surveyed” (46). Berger is stating that because of the male gaze women have to constantly judge themselves in order to get a sense of how a man may judge them. Berger states that women turn themselves into objects (47). The male gaze creates an environment were women are putting on a show for men, but women are also watching themselves and internalizing how men treat them. “Men act and women appear” (Berger 47). Men are always looking at women, while women watch themselves being looked at by men.

The image on the left, Reclining Bacchante by Trutat, is a perfect example of the male gaze used in art. The woman in the painting is being both surveyed by the man in the painting and the person looking at the painting. However, she is also the surveyor because she is watching you watch her. The male gaze creates competition between women and violence between men and women. Women are constantly competing with themselves, making sure they are being surveyed the way they see themselves. Women are also always competing with other women for the approval of men. This has been happening for years and is still happening today. Social media, specifically Instagram, is a perfect example of a contemporary male gaze. Women routinely post “selfies” in hopes of getting a certain amount of likes. Each “like” is an approval of her image. If the selfie does not not get enough likes, more often than not it is taken down.

The male gaze is so powerful because we live in a patriarchal world. According to Bell Hooks, “patriarchy 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 to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence” (18). Simply put, males are the head of the household, the breadwinners, and basically the dominant gender in a patriarchal society. In a patriarchal world women are meant to bear children and serve men. As you can see, male gaze and patriarchy go hand-in-hand, women are objects and servants to men.

Patriarchy is detrimental to females for obvious reason, in the 19th and 20th century women were no allowed to do certain things, such as work or educate themselves, simply because they were female. While those harsh gender roles have diluted slightly, patriarchy still oppresses the lives of women today. For example, women are held to certain unrealistic beauty standards, not many women become CEOs, a pay gap still exist, and unmarried women are still viewed as “less than.” Patriarchy restricts women from reaching their full potential just so that they do not over shadow or emasculate their male peers. Clearly there are blatant reasons why patriarchy is detrimental to females, but the less obvious is the negative impact it has on males.

Men who are not considered masculine by societal standards reap the negative backlash of patriarchy. Men who are not violent or domineering are seen as less than; are considered feminine, as if that is a bad thing. Bell Hooks states that “boys brutalized and victimized by patriarchy more often than not become patriarchal, embodying the abusive patriarchal masculinity that they once clearly recognized as evil” (28). We, as a patriarchal society, do not allow children to live as they please, we hold boys and girls to certain gender stereotypes. When young boys have a negative patriarchal experience, they often tend to reject patriarchy into adulthood until they want to gain greater respect and prove their masculinity. Parents reinforce patriarchy by using phrases like “boys don’t cry” or “that game is only for boys.” It forces women to follow with what Bell Hooks refers to as “blind obedience,” meaning the repression of all emotions except for fear, the destruction of individual willpower, and the repression of thinking for one’s self (Hooks 23).  

While the male gaze and patriarchy clearly oppress women, there is also the female gaze. The female gaze is the constant femininity that is forced upon women from a young age. In Emma Jones’s Ted Talk about The Toxic Female Gaze, she emphasizes how little girls are forced into femininity. Toy stores push pink clothing, barbie dolls, and tea sets at our little girls in the hopes that they grow up to become nurturing housewives. The female gaze is the world’s fascination with a woman’s looks and age. Emma Jones mentions that toxic female gaze can lead to “envy, comparison, and in worse cases mental health issues.” As mentioned above, with the social media example, the male gaze also creates comparison among women. Women are always trying to impress someone, whether it be a man, another women, or even herself. Jones explains that male and females are affected by the female gaze, especially in the media. Everyone is judged based on appearances and that has detrimental effects. We live a world where we are constantly being watched and judged. The image below is simply to show the possible turn of events, in most renaissance paintings, women are nude and the men are fully clothed but here the woman is in control.

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Chapter 2 & 3. Penguin. 2008. Print. Feb. 2, 2019.

(Image) Reclining Bacchante. Trutat. 1824-1848

Jones, Emma. TedTalk. The Toxic Female Gaze. June 28, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UclXAnTMZRY

“Understanding Patriarchy.” The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love, by Bell Hooks,

Washington Square Press, 2005, pp. 17–32. Print. Feb. 2, 2019.

Male Gaze and Patriarchy

The male gaze describes how different structures such as media, paintings and movies present male perspectives and desires. The male gaze has been present for centuries as it was known in the Renaissance era through the paintings of the male artists and their representation of naked women. The term represents women as sexual objects for male’s sense of pleasure. According to John Berger in Ways of Seeing, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.” (47). Also “The real function of the mirror was otherwise. It was to make the woman connive in treating herself as, first and foremost, a sight” (Berger, 51). Subsequently, women’s appearance provokes men’s actions and behaviors. Further, Women are aware of that as they have been told they will be surveyed. They tend to satisfy men by changing their appearances and turning into an objects. Berger also highlights how women appearance is a very important element in the process of capturing men’s attention. However, women shouldn’t be looked upon by her appearance.

The portrait “vanity’ emphasizes how the woman is admiring her beauty and seeing herself as a sight, according to Berger.

The male gaze has become pervasive in art and popular culture because it remained constant since the middle ages till the current day. Women are still perceived as an objects for pleasure through the current media, magazine and television. For example, it’s represented through the encouragement of unnecessary beauty rituals. Women are constantly told that they have to remove their body hair, wear makeup or lose weight to satisfy societal expectations. Further, “She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her.” (Berger, 50). So men enjoy looking at naked women to serve their sense of pleasure and nothing else. Consequently, it encourages women to view their bodies as an instrument to please men.

Male gaze is a form of our patriarchal society. Patriarchy was another issue found in this period. According to Bell Hooks, Patriarchy is defined 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 to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.”(18). Patriarchy illustrates the societal expectations of how females should be submissive to males. Also indicates that males have the power of authority. Consequently, females are struggling in modifying the gender roles created by not only males but society as a whole. For example, women have been taught to be housewives by obeying male figures, raising the children, and maintaining the household. While men was known to be the breadwinner. Also women were denied the rights to education and the rights to vote. Men were also seen as stronger emotionally, physically and mentally than women. Hooks also stated that, “Although we were often confused, we knew one fact for certain: we could not be and act the way we wanted to, doing what we felt like.” (19). so patriarchy has created a dominant gender roles. It controlled the way men and women should act and behave. For example, men shouldn’t express feelings except anger while women aren’t supposed to express anger.

This illustration is an example of women taking action and claiming they can also be patriotic as men.

Patriarchy and male gaze have changed over time but still exist and affect our current society. We see these structures in our daily life. After discussing this in lectures, I believe this can be applied to my life in some aspects. For example, I have been taught that girls shouldn’t go out at late timing, they should be back home early and they shouldn’t laugh out loud in public. While my brother was able to go out at any time and do anything he wants freely without any restrictions. Further, patriarchy and the male gaze go hand in hand as they created the glass ceiling. It’s the barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the top regardless of their qualifications. For example, the elections in 2016 as many people didn’t agree with Trump but they rejected the idea of a woman being a president and being in charge. Therefore, they elected him. Berger mentioned that they are “brainwashed” into believing theses patriarchal concepts since a young age.

Laura Mulvey introduced the term “female gaze” to challenge the uses of filmmaking known as the male gaze. She emphasized the disparity of power in film controlled by the male gaze. The female gaze represents the female as the viewer along with their desires which empowers women.

https://www.thoughtco.com/patriarchal-society-feminism-definition-3528978

https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486

Work cited

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

2. Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy." The Will to Change. Atria Books: 2004.