The Male Gaze

The Male Gaze has created a belief where women are presented as objects for viewing pleasure for men. As Berger states, "Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." (Berger 47) This demonstrates that women are not looked upon as a person, but as a luxury item shown to others. They present themselves to be evaluated by men then later rewarded on whoever looks the best, "Those who are not judged beautiful are not beautiful. Those who are, are given the prize."(Berger 52) Women are influenced to look beautiful for appreciation from others, "A Woman must continuously watch herself. She is almost accompanied by her own image of herself." (Berger 46) This has also created an insecurity for women who do not reveal their bodies to look further down upon. However, revealing their bodies also implies that they're "available" to men. Further in male gaze, women in portraits were nude. Not naked but nude, "To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself." (Berger 54) Men that view her do not see her as a person, but as a display for the artist that had clothes on. Another example of male gaze, "Men survey women before treating them." (Berger 46) If women were to act angrily or demonstrate non-formal actions, "this is an example of how she treats her own emotions of anger and so of how she wish it to be treated by others." (Berger 47) But if men were to act angrily, it would only be read as anger.
The Male Gaze is pervasive in art because women are pleasing to look at. Today in popular culture, majority of magazine covers consists of women showing their bodies or doing interesting poses. When other women see the magazine, they are influenced to change themselves to look appealing to others. The women on the magazines are seen as objects for promotion. Not only is this in magazines, but also in television, video games, practically everywhere.

Patriarchy and The Male Gaze are related to each other. Patriarchy, defined by Bell Hooks, " A political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females..."(Hooks 18) Both involving men as "superior" to women. Patriarchy has sustained itself through the years since the very beginning. The people were taught that god was male, so people embraced the patriarchy thinking and soon it seemed to be the "natural" way of life. This way of life would be passed on for generations to generations, "Our sense of gender roles was learned from our parents, by the ways we saw them behave." (Hooks 19) Parents would "fix" their children to fit into their appropriate gender roles and accept their false selves. When Bell wanted to play marbles like the boys, her father "Then suddenly he snatched me up, broke a board from our screen door, and began to beat me with it..." (Hooks 20) Not only what the man did was unacceptable, but he was also forgiven for his violent actions which women were not allowed to do. Women were allowed to show emotion, while the men were not or they would be "a sissy." Not only does Patriarchy affect women, it also affects men who do not fit in the category of "masculine."
When I was young, I didn't realize my parents followed the Patriarchy life style, but later on gradually we drifted apart from that style. Although not long ago, my swim team member yelled, "Be a man!" I've always been a bit bothered on why she would "man up" when our members were doing fine.



https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/courses/beauty/web4/akaufman.html