Male Gaze and Patriarchy

In history, the typical viewer of artwork was male. The term male gaze is the sexual objectification of women in fine art and other various media outlets. Most depictions of females during the 1900's were painted by men. Art critic, writer, novelist, painter and poet John Berger states that the male gaze in art is when men portray women in art as objects for their own pleasure. John Berger said "A woman is always accompanied, except when quite alone, and perhaps even them, by her own image of herself. While she is walking across a room or weeping at the death of her father, she cannot avoid envisioning herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she is taught and persuaded to survey herself continually. She has to survey everything she is and everything she does, because how she appears to others - and particularly how she appears to men - is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life."(Berger) Men enjoy looking at nude paintings of women because it makes them feel empowered and they get enjoyment out of seeing these kind of paintings. Painters would paint these women nude or if not, they would be shown with jewels and look luxurious in order to please mens eyes. 

In the painting "Judgement of Paris" by Ivo Saliger, it shows three nude women. One is standing right in front of a man sitting on a rock meanwhile the other two girls are shown putting their clothes back on. This was painted in 1939, during the major era of male gaze. "Judgement of Paris" was purposely painted this way so that men could enjoy the painting. The man in the painting is sitting on a large rock with an apple in his hand. This shows how comfortable he is looking at these nude women with pleasure. Women continued to be painted in these kind of images which shows how disrespected they were but as the years continued women started to get more and more equal rights. Although there are many times when women feel unequal to men, there has been a large step in equality. Women have always been fighting for equal rights, but there are only a small number of men that care for equality for women. They do not care because it does not apply to them and they enjoy feeling bigger and more important than women. Throughout history many women wanted to become artists, teachers or become educated but society only saw them as objects and housewives. Even if there were most talented women, they would never get the credit they should have. 

In "Understanding Patriarchy" by Bell Hooks, she starts it off by saying this: "Many men in our nation would not be able to spell the word or pronounce it correctly. The word “patriarchy” just is not a part of their normal everyday thought or speech. Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women’s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to their own experiences."(Hooks) She starts off by saying this because she knows that men don't care about what she is talking about. The word patriarchy means the political social system that insists that males are dominant and superior to everything meanwhile females are deemed weak. Many men suffer from patriarchy because they don't understand that women can and are just as powerful and important as men are. They neglect to think of women as their equals and praise that they are superior to women. Bell Hooks analyzes what happens in the world, comparing women and males and , "Ask feminists to diagnose men’s problems and you will often get a very clear explanation: men are in crisis because women are properly challenging male dominance. Women are asking men to share the public reins and men can’t bear it." (Hooks) Women are standing up for themselves and challenging men for who they are and how they perceive and treat women. Men can not bear to see women getting equality and hate that they can not stop them from trying and getting the treatment they deserve. 

Gender roles play a large part in our society, from past to present to future, it will always be an issue. In the past there were no women artist. But today there are thousands and thousands of female artists that are making their way up in the world. But men still see them as less than them. Even when their work is more creative, they continue to judge and bring down women just because they have of their ego.  Everyone goes through tough situations, but women have gone through lot over the past years and have fought through everything in order to make themselves noticed. Patriarchy and male gaze will always be a part of our lives. Even as young boys grow up, they get the idea that they are stronger and more powerful than girls. For this reason, women will continue to rise against those who put them down and belittle them because they know that they are just as equal to men.  

http://waysofseeingwaysofseeing.com/ways-of-seeing-john-berger-5.7.pdf

http://imaginenoborders.org/pdf/zines/UnderstandingPatriarchy.pdf