The Male Gaze: What are Men so focused on?

Why do men receive more salary than women, who do exactly the same work they do? It's the same work, the same time, and the same labor put in, yet men still "win" in getting a higher salary. This continues my point as to why women are always kept behind, whether it is mainly because they have big boobs or big butts. If they are kept in schools or offices for that certain reason. Till this day, if someone looks at a CEO and they happen to be a female running the company, society will raise an eyebrow. Some women stop trying because of their hard work simply not getting anywhere. As the famous group of artists, the Guerilla Girls once exclaimed, "Working without the pressure of success", (Guerilla Girls 9), was a part of their daily routine. Most of society did not praise women, yet the least praise female artists who made their way to success. 

Picture of the Guerilla Girls's Famous Logo

You know how a lady walks down the streets of New York City and all the guys start hollering at the woman? Do not be fooled; that tradition of men hollering at females, no matter what age, has not changed. Men will holler at any moving object, which brings us to the main topic of today's blog: Male Gaze. Some may look at those two words and immediately know what they mean. It is basically when a man stares down a woman, they ignore absolutely everything about the woman and just stare in a particularly odd way. In any form that these women appear in, whether it being in the movies, super bowl commercials, cereal boxes, or playboy magazines, men will fantasize until they drool. 

 

The years have changed, the dates have changed, and the centuries have changed, but the way men think and the way they see is still the same. That way of thinking has yet to change and unfortunately it is being passed down from one generation to the next. As Chadwick summarizes in chapter 1, women had no power and they were either the property of men or they had no ruling or voice against anything that came their in their life (Chadwick). I personally have two sisters, and sometimes when we are all hanging out, just having a good time, there will be one guy who will always see us for girls and not the knowledge we retain and, say something foolish. However, we cannot blame the men themselves because they do not know any better because of how they are taught and what they inherit from being around certain people. In the art history, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance time period till the present day, men have used this "gaze" to get through their desires. When a female artist would put her precious time and effort into her artwork, a man would refuse to pay any attention to her. Therefore, Guerilla Girls made a reference about how females had to be naked so that their art work would be given any certain value to it (Guerilla Girls). It is all about how men perceive a situation with a female in it. In the article, https://www.someecards.com/news/sports/olympics-prove-male-gaze-exists/, written by H. Alan Scott, he explains how the man sees one perspective of a situation while a female sees the completely oppsite thing. It is a man looking at the butt or boobs versus the woman's great personality or humor or the idea of a circumstance.

 As

This picture above on the left depicts how men do not care about who the female is or how she must be so successful, yet they need to stare at all her body parts no matter what. Chadwick's readings state how patriarchy ties in with all this, connecting the male gaze to how it was formed. From the time of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance time period, the men had the ruling power and as I mentioned earlier, the women were either married or sold off to a man. In some cases, their inheritance would only go to the woman if they married into the family (Chadwick). This has also been a "tradition" where it has just passed on from different generations along with different cultures. When this rule never changed women rarely got a chance to rule or have a say in what they wanted to do, or change the tradition and be at the top. However, some artists such as the ones we learned in class made their way to success in their eyes, and made it to the top. It has always been known for the man to be on top of everything. Whether it being in the house, with the money, the relationship, or business. It has always been like that with these women trying to fight that stereotype and make their way to the top of the pyramid, but they have to work twice as hard, and they are known as feminists. Above on the right, there is also an advertisement of "Dolce and Gabbana" and they choose to portray a female because they know how to make these females approach sellers. If the man is buying a product from them for his wife or girlfriend, he would most probably look at the advertisement and think to himself, "Oooo I want her to look like that", and end up buying it. For men it's what they see at an instant and what they instantly pick up to know. They could be selling toilet paper and have a woman wearing a red body tight dress and the man will instantly buy it. Why, you ask? Because it's what men want and desire. All their fantasies and passion comes from just looking at these types of things. The worst part is that they do not let anyone boss them around or say they cannot do something because they know they can do it; because they are on the top: top of the pyramid and "The Man". Some people are affected greatly by the male gaze and let down, as this article tells us about, https://everydayfeminism.com/2013/05/changing-male-gaze/.