Thursday, September 20, 2018

The Role of Patriarchy and The Male Gaze


             The Male Gaze can be characterized as the tendency 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 "[M]en 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. Below you can see an example of one.

 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" (Berger 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 reflected in the art translates itself into society by implementing 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. Nude oil paintings are just one blatant form of art that promote the male gaze. Here is a link that provides further information about the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of women in art: https://www.entitymag.com/women-art/. The Male Gaze continues to dominate itself in its presence of many modern-day forms of media. One present-day example are most Women's health magazines, in which the cover art includes a woman posing in a bikini showing off her body, which is essentially sex appeal. The text on the cover is fixated on improving the appearance of the female and losing weight rather than focusing on overall health and nutrition for women of a broader age spectrum.

Patriarchy is the idea that men are inherently 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"( Bell Hooks 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. There are many double standards that can be formed using the ideas of patriarchy, here you can discover more of the double standards present in society and its effects on women: https://goodmenproject.com/social-justice-2/hes-assertive-shes-bossy-the-double-standard-language-of-gender-wcz/. 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.

            As a response to the male gaze, women have created the female gaze in order to establish their presence and perspective in a world where they are treated as insignificant or non-existent. The female gaze serves the purpose to give a visual representation and voice to women who have only been viewing arts through the perspective of the male. This perspective is more emotional and takes feelings into consideration and treats people as people, not objects. The female gaze does not attack males or objectify them, rather it refutes the male gaze of treating them as sexual objects. It represents women as real people with real feelings. Being a male in today's society, we must recognize our active role in the oppression of our female counterparts. Many men can agree that popular conversation topics amongst men include objectifying and sexualizing women and have experienced, whether doing it themselves or seeing fellow men do it, male gazing. It is okay to recognize the faults in our past and admit to our 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.






                                                                           Works Cited
Berger, John, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb, and Richard Hollis. Ways of Seeing., 1973. Print.
Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. Washington Square Press, 2005.


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