Desiree Roman
Art and Women
Professor Doris Caçoilo
9/28/17
The
Male Gaze and Patriarchy
The male gaze can be
defined as women being objects towards men for their own pleasure. Women do not
have entitlement, they are succumbed to men’s guilty desires. John Berger in his book depicts that the male
gaze is when, “men act and women appear… she turns herself into an object – and
most particularly an object of vision: a sight” (Ways of Seeing, 47). This
portrays that men watch while women watch themselves being looked at because women
are only important to the male viewers eyes and what they want. They are only a
sight used for men’s possession. Women have always been inferior to man. Men
view themselves as being superior because that was always taught to them. Men
always act like they have power even when their character doesn’t illustrate that.
However, evidently women are submissive towards men. As Berger states, “how a
woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated” (Ways of Seeing,
46). Clearly, Berger displays that woman must act a certain way to be treated
how they want to. If they do certain things men will view and treat them how
they do those certain things. In every circumstance, this is different for a
man because he is in power, it doesn’t matter if he acts a certain way because
no one is watching him, he is not an object of vision, he is the one watching,
which allows him to have the presence of power. In addition, the male gaze is
pervasive in art and popular culture as Berger shows. The painting, Allegory of Time and Love by Bronzino, illustrates
sexual provocation. The painting portrays the arrangement of the woman’s body
and how it is not of her passion but the passion of the man who is observing
her. Nudity is what allows woman to be subjugated. This is evident since the
beginning of time, women must be nude to appeal to the “art” world. In fact,
that is the only way because the only way to attract the pleasures of man is to
portray the sight of nudity. Similarly, Berger expresses how in popular
culture, “Woman are there to feed an appetite, not to have any of their own” (Ways
of Seeing, 55). Woman are there to intrigue the male’s pleasure. Men want to
cease women’s passion which is why they view them as objects meant to fascinate
their satisfaction. The image is created to flatter the male’s enjoyment of the
women’s body which is why majority of the time women are shown in magazines
they are naked.
To continue, patriarchy
can be described as a system of society or government in which
the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through
the male line. Patriarchy still exist in our world today because society norms depicts
that men will always hold power and be dominant in households, society,
government, etc. It shows that women must always be oppressed and obedient.
Bellhooks describes patriarchy to be, “a political system that insists that
males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed
weak… maintain that dominance through… psychological terrorism and violence”
(Understanding Patriarchy, 18). She wants the reader to interpret that males
are deemed to be powerful and superior over anything that is viewed as weak.
She wants us to understand that feminism plays no role in the dominance of men.
Bellhooks illustrates her own experience of patriarchy in her household. “I
insisted on my right to play by picking up marbles… Dad intervened me to stop.
I did not listen… he beat me, wanting me to acknowledge that I understood what I
had done” (Understanding Patriarchy, 21). She shows us how patriarchy was a
dominant belief of her fathers. He didn’t allow her to participate in what her
brother did because women weren’t strong enough to have the same standards and
expectations of man. She was obedient to her father because he used violence to
display his power in the household. Likewise, Bellhooks also exemplifies how
even when households want to be non-patriarchal, society still considers patriarchy
to exist. “Alexander enjoyed dressing as Barbie until boys playing with his
older brother… by their gaze and their shocked, disapproving silence that his
behavior was unacceptable” (Understanding Patriarchy, 22). She illustrates how
even when boys did not want to follow the rules of patriarchy, the world around
them still worshipped it. They disapproved any man who didn’t show the
qualities of strength and had the resemblance of feminism. Men were put to
rule, while women were put to follow. If man did not resemble the quality of
strength they would be looked down upon. Patriarchy is vital because it is
worshipped in every household. The government is run by all men, the powerful
men of society make all the rules, and in households the father makes the rules
and the mother follows through.
To me, the male gaze and
patriarchy are always going to be a part of the world we live in. It will be
hard to get rid of it because men are taught to view women as submissive and
weak growing up. They aren’t taught that women are capable to rule. So, if it
keeps being taught in households, patriarchy and the male gaze will be passed
down from generation to generation. Today, America is run by men. Women don’t
rule in the United States yet in other countries women dominate. Why is that?
Do women not run for office? I don’t think that’s the case. Men in America feel
that women aren’t fit enough to rule 50 states. They don’t have the education,
experience, strength, etc. to be a dominant figure. Patriarchy plays a role
once again, since the beginning of time men would always rule. The male gaze
and patriarchy are a mix of each other because since men view women as objects
they are in control of them. Women have to rise together and fight in order to
view men as objects and be dominant.
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