Evonny Portilla The Male Gaze and Patriarchy

Evonny Portilla 

The male gaze is the way men look at women. Males wouldn’t see women for their intelligence or capacity to do things but as a sexual object, a pleasure machine. A painting of a naked woman is an exact example of a male gaze, it’s the woman’s purpose through a male eye in the painting. John Berger stated the gaze was a way men used women as objects in their art work. John Berger states “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” [Berger 46]. This demonstrates how women were seen as objects and how that was seen as their success. Women were often painted with luxurious clothes and wearing expensive jewels and standing straight, the woman was seen as an object modeling for the pleasure of the male artist to look at. On page 47, “The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight” [Berger 47]. Women were so invested into thinking they were watched by every male to the point where they themselves saw men looking at them and then starting contemplating on what they are instead of who they are. Women just turned into a view, instead of actual person. Male painters saw them as objects and made sure to capture their naked bodies down to every detail. The painting to my right called “Reclining Bacchante” by Trutat 1824-1848, there lays a woman naked of course, posing for the painting while a man watches her body gleaming. The man’s attention is focused on the women’s body. The woman posing is staring straight holding a sexual pose, the artist definitely made sure her body was the center of attention, because in the back ground, in the dark is a man’s head. Specially his face, his eyes are staring at the women’s glowing body, concentrating on the women’s body features. The painting is an example of the male gaze. It is pervasive in art due to males having more power at the time. The fact they were able to be educated meant power. Especially as artist males were taken more serious then women were. The opportunity a female had was to be in the panting but has to be painted the way the male saw her. The male didn’t see her for who she is but for what she is. What she had to provide, which was her body. Male artist painted women obviously naked but when they weren’t naked they would paint women well dressed. The male artists made sure they painted women the way they want to see them and the way they saw them worth which was degrading for a lot of women.

Then there is also patriarchy, Bell hooks described patriarchy as “a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially female, 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” [Hooks 19]. I am personally against patriarchy, as a female, personally I hope I am seen more than just having breasts and a vagina. I wouldn’t like to be looked down upon men. I am striving to be a dentist and that’s in the science field, where back then a woman would’ve never thought of studying. When applying to dentist school I hope when my application is being reviewed my gender wont matter but what I bring to the table matters. In today’s day women are still not as equal to men, but it has definitely changed a lot since when a lot of these paintings were painted. Patriarchy states that men are superior then women and that women are weak and not capable of doing what men do, that only men are allowed to dominate. Which is false in every shape and form. A woman had to work their way up the ladder and the women today are still continuing to climb the ladder. The picture above called “Man drawing reclining woman” by Durer 1471-1528, is a clear indication of patriarchy. The way the women is laying down naked while all the man does is watch with lust and paint her. The male is clearly painting her but not with a clean mindset but a dirty pleasure mindset. He is wanting her sexually, all he sees is a vagina that can make him feel good. The woman lays down with such delicacy while the man is sitting up straight and most likely ordered the female to pose the way he wants to paint her. Women are much more worth then their bodies but their minds. As a woman in this society my mission is prove that my brain, my personality is worth more than my body.

Citations:Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 2008
bell hooks (Author). “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Paperback – December 21, 2004.” The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love: Bell Hooks

Pictures:https://i.pinimg.com/originals/09/9a/17/099a17306b4bbc88698000608b25638c.jpg
https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/assets/images/art2.gif