The male gaze is the awareness and accordance of power by a male over a female, but also by a female over herself. A condensed version of this would be, “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” (Berger , 47). By watching herself being looked at, she becomes hyperaware of her position as a woman, and in turn surveys herself through the gaze of a man. This hypersensitivity turns her into an object to be looked at.
Through
the nude we see how women have been viewed as an object to be watched. It is
important to acknowledge the story of Adam and Eve when considering the nude. After
eating the apple Adam and Eve become aware of being naked. Prior to this, their nakedness was not seen
with such definition. Eating the apple incurs the wrath of God, where the woman is
punished and becomes “less than” the man. During the renaissance painters start
to depict this nudity, not nakedness, as shameful, often with figs covering the
genitals. This shame is for the viewer and put on display by the artists. The underlying idea is usually the same, a
woman watching herself being looked at. For example, in the painting Susannah and the Elders, shown above, the main focus
is the nude Susannah. The creepy elders spying on a young girl are miniscule when
compared with her. She is also looking at her audience, providing her
awareness.
The male
gaze assumes that the way women act is the way they wish to be treated. This
historic mind frame has not escaped the 21st century. Often, abusers
claim, “she wanted it” when they abuse. It is not uncommon to hear, “she should
not have been out that late”, “it’s her fault”, or “she shouldn’t have been
dressed that way”. Not too long ago
there was a case where a bunch of football players raped a young woman and they
got away with it because “they’re just being boys”. It would be extremely unfortunate to believe
that just because we live in the 21st century and have made huge
strides, depending on one’s definition of a huge stride, the male gaze has
become obsolete.
Patriarchy
is a systematic power structure that oppresses the female largely and, at
times, can be harmful to the male. To put this in perspective,
“Patriarchy is a
political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating,
superior to everyone and everything deemed weak… 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 important to note that although males are the ones
that hold the power in this structure, females are not the only ones that
suffer from its ill effects. Bell Hooks and her brother were both negatively
affected by patriarchy, although Bell was affected more severely. She was a
loud and aggressive a child, while her brother was more soft spoken and
easy-going.
From a patriarchal perspective,
Bell and her brother were the opposite of what a girl and boy should be.
Females are meant to be gentle, kind, and nourishing. Males are meant to be
strong, aggressive when necessary, and head of the households. Because men are
in a position of power they are forced to conform to the norms set in place,
which can include lacking empathy and suppressing feelings. Women may be able
to express their feelings, but they may do so only to the degree patriarchy
allows. Any expression of authority or aggression is seen as unnatural in a
woman.
Some may
assume that because women have achieved many victories for themselves, patriarchy no longer exists. Just like the male gaze, this is not the case.
Patriarchy shows up in everyday life and sometimes in extremely subtle ways. A
mother choosing to have her daughter do the housework while her son does
nothing could be interpreted as patriarchy at work. It is common to hear of
parents placing stricter rules on girls than on boys. With the boy it is okay
if he doesn’t do dishes or if he stays out late because he is a boy. A girl is
considered as less feminine if she doesn’t do dishes and promiscuous if she
stays out late. The story of Bell Hook’s childhood is not the only one of its
kind. Other children suffer the same way her and her brother did, today and in
the past. In Susannah and the Elders the
male gaze is at play. One can argue that the male gaze is a direct result of
patriarchal power structures. The male gaze exists in the way it does because
men hold the power in the male to female binary. The picture below shows the power men, generally, have over women and children. The women and kids look at the father with blind devotion, as the father looks straight ahead because he is the only one that can. This is great example of the male gaze and patriarchy in a more modern society.
Works Cited
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.
Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Feminist Historiography." Economic and Political Weekly 25.31 (1990): 1735-736. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.
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