The Male Gaze and Patriarchy

In today’s society, whether you’re scrolling on social media or walking down the street, you will inevitably come across a woman presenting herself flamboyantly, proud of her accomplishments and sharing them with the world. Not too long ago, this would’ve been considered immoral. Even though women have progressed much greater than anyone could’ve imagined during that time, they are still underappreciated and overlooked. “The male gaze” is the way in which women are viewed as an aesthetic object of a heterosexual man’s pleasure. In John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” he discusses the male gaze and how since men were dominant in arts and media, they were able to control what they wanted everyone else to see, which was a woman’s body. But, her body was looked at for the sole purpose of pleasuring himself, not for who she was or her beauty past her body. When referring to a painting by Hemling, Berger states,”The real function of the mirror was otherwise. It was to make the woman connive in treating herself as, and foremost, a sight” (Berger, 51). The mirror used in these artworks by men portrayed women as just an object to be looked at, not understood. Prevalent in many artworks throughout history are women, the subject which coincides with “men act and women appear” (Berger, 47). Women are to present themselves in a particular ‘lady-like’ manner whereas men don’t need to keep themselves contained. Why must women be placed behind the scenes but men can be and have to be the stars of the show? The answer to this lies within insecure men who feel the need to assert their power over women to feel superior and have their ego boosted.

The male gaze is applicable in almost all movies, tv shows, and pictures. There is always at least one woman who is shown as the desire of every man expressed from her clothing, or lack thereof. For example, the movie Baywatch. Granted that movie was based on a show popular in the late 1980s in which even the title scene portrayed women running in their bikinis in slow motion which captured many male audiences over the years, the movie in 2017 reflected the thinking of male producers and directors of that time. In this movie, the women were sexually objectified as well but since it is the 21st century, you would think that maybe men wouldn’t feel right portraying women in such a way. This is because the male gaze still exists and is hard to dismiss in a world of heterosexual men running the show. Why do women continuously allow themselves to be in this position? Women should be portrayed for their great minds and thinking skills.

A great representation of feminism today is the song “Flawless” by Beyonce. The introduction of the song is a snippet of a speech done by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at a TED talk. The empowering message of Adichie and the overall song explores feminism and the importance of embracing oneself as a beautiful woman.

What is patriarchy and why is it not used in everyday conversation? Patriarchy, according to Bell Hooks, “is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, 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, 18). It is a term that even men don't quite understand or even care for.

 In many cultures and religions, men have to be dominant and women have to abide by their rules. They are easily taken advantage of since they have little to no say in day to day matters. In my culture, it is not uncommon to see men claiming their dominance in every imaginable. Men are granted freedom without request but women are to stay at home because it doesn’t look good for a woman to be out and about and it reflects poorly on her family as if to say, “because your daughter goes out a lot, she wasn’t taught or raised right by her parents.” Until recently, it was pretty unorthodox for women to be working. The men would work and provide the money and the women would stay home, take care of the kids, cook, and clean. Men didn’t see any reason why a woman should have to work if he is perfectly capable of working and providing for the family. “I was taught that it was my role to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and nurture others. My brother was taught that it was his role to be served, to provide; to be strong; to think, strategize and plan; and refused to caretake or nurture others” (Hooks, 18). When men and women take on a reverse role, they are criticized. 

For example, my dad washes dishes, cooks little things for himself, and cleans up the house. Other family friends sometimes look at this weirdly and think why can’t my mother do it for him? But, she does. She does the majority of the household work but he also realizes the importance of not putting all that burden on a single person, his wife. By watching him, my older brothers grew to pick up the same habits as him and don’t rely on their wife or mother as much. Sometimes though when they did ask me to bring something to them, I would automatically respond with something like “well aren’t you right there? Why can’t you go and get it?” It wasn't to be rude or disrespectful but it was a reflex and from watching my father, I realized that men don’t need to assert their power by sitting around doing nothing. Of course, if my brothers had an actual reason for why they couldn’t go grab whatever it was from the other room I would get it but if they were sitting around doing nothing, I had an instant reflex to say no and look at them funny. Therefore, it makes me realize that the everlasting cycle patriarchy can be stopped but it requires the help of men who understand they are not on top of the world and curb their ego. This understanding has changed my view of various arts and media in the way that knowing it was mainly heterosexual men who were ‘in charge,’ led to the popularity and prevalence of the abundance of examples we now have of the male gaze and patriarchy.  It helped me understand my role in this structure which is to discontinue patriarchy even through something as simple as not handing my brothers something they asked for when they can get it themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSejqrEj1Qg 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc

-Sana Sajid