Male Gaze and Patriarchy, Alisha Robinson

The male gaze as described by John Berger, is a feminist philosophical act in which males receive pleasure from looking at women in different depictions of art. Berger states, “Men survey women before treating them.” (Berger 46) This statement actually proves to be true in many different aspects, and is very true and prominent in the field of art. The male gaze is something that many males do and not even realize that they are doing so. The male gaze is present all over social media, television, and even most advertising. Berger’s statement really means that a man will treat a women by how she appears. For example, if a woman is shown to be naked or revealing in any way, males will “gaze” upon her and receive satisfaction from just looking at her. They will uphold her in a way that makes females who don’t show some sort of nakedness little or insecure. Now, that doesn’t go to say that women who reveal themselves are essentially “asking for it” when they receive the male gaze, it all means that men, especially male artists who include these sorts of women in their art, want to show dominance and some sort of superiority. The dominance and superiority factors come into play because it’s like a predator hunting down its prey. A predator will watch it’s prey’s every move, and gaze upon it until it is at its most vulnerable point and ultimately dominant over the prey.

The male gaze is pervasive in art and popular culture because females are aesthetically pleasing to males. In art, or any other part of popular culture, many females are naked or basically there. The art world is basically more male than female so it goes without a doubt that male gaze is essentially always present. John Berger also states, “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure.” (Berger 51) This statement means that many male artists try to say that they are not aesthetically pleased by watching a naked woman and try to make it seem like it the woman’s own fault for posing in the nude. Male artists try to reverse the blame of the male gaze by saying women basically have to pose naked to produce art. The whole idea of the “Vanity” in art goes back to the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders. When artists try to depict this story in art, they placed a mirror in the naked Susanna’s hands to try to emphasize she is looking and admiring her own self, when in actually reality, it is the artist who is getting the real pleasure from the situation. This is seen in many advertising outlets, especially magazines. Why is it that in many “Sports Illustrated” magazines, women are on the covers and found throughout the whole magazine either naked or in some way revealing? The male gaze is the answer! The male gaze essentially boosts ratings for the magazine, making more males buy it because they like to gaze upon women.

The male gaze goes hand in hand with patriarchy. The meaning of patriarchy is that men uphold the power in a society and/or government and women are largely excluded from it. As Bell Hook states, “Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation.” (Bell Hooks 17) This statement she makes is the first sentence of the reading and in my opinion a powerful opener. She gets straight to the point when describing patriarchy and how men abuse it and also suffer from it. Our nation, The United States of America, was built on patriarchal views and ultimately has a patriarchal driven foundation that sets the tone for many laws, regulations, political, and even social matters.
Men are upheld to this very masculine standard, and taught from a very young age that being a “manly man” is the only way to be. Hooks also adds that, “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, to be disloyal to the patriarchal parent, be that parent female or male.” (Bell Hooks 27) This statement by Bell Hooks shows my own problem with patriarchy. Many men in our society are told not to cry, feel, like “feminist” things, be dominant, be the leader, and so on. These might be things men “should” do as by today’s standards, but in my opinion men were never really given a choice to decide on what they like or want to do. Most patriarchal ideas are embedded into males as children, being told by their peers to “Man Up!” or “Don’t be a girl about it!” This system of patriarchy may seem like its teaching males how to be men but in reality it’s just emotionally disabling young men and having them bottle up their true emotions, which can lead to unwanted and chaotic situations such as incompetent, and emotionally disturbed men like Donald Trump becoming president.

https://ginacalnan.pbworks.com/f/themalegaze.pdf

https://www.salon.com/2017/08/01/patriarchy-and-toxic-masculinity-are-dominating-america-under-trump_partner/