John Berger's concept of the male gaze in Ways of Seeing is an idea on how a man views a woman in terms of her own appearance, mostly to show her sexual appeal to make herself empowered towards the people around her. Men seemed to keep this developed idea throughout history to the point that women also agreed with it. Significant examples are the many paintings, portraits, and pictures of naked women during the Renaissance era, and contemporary examples are the various photos, magazines, and movies of female models in the modern era. When one sees these pictures of a naked woman, she is portrayed to in a sexually attractive pose. The woman makes a pose in that manner to get the male viewer to look at her, exposing her own body to him. The man's viewpoint at the naked woman's body as an object vividly defines the male gaze; Berger expresses, "A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude," and he notes that the sight of the naked body as an object "stimulates the use of it as an object," (54). The male gaze causes people to expect what women in art portraits, pictures, and paintings will be illustrated as based primarily on her exterior looks, especially in sexually attractiveness. From viewing the naked body as an object as well as paying attention principally on what the woman looks like, the male gaze may be linked to the men's old notion of thinking that they are more dominant in determining what are considered norms in society. This old way of thinking came from the concept of patriarchy.
Patriarchy is, according the article "Understanding Patriarchy" by Bell Hooks, "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," (18). The systematic idea that men are the primary controllers of power while women are considered supplementary is an long-established, long-determined societal model to assume what the social roles and expectations of both men and women are. Patriarchal thinking chiefly stemmed from what people are taught about the expected roles of both sexes in religion. To illustrate, Hooks expresses her thoughts on the subject through her own personal experiences as a Christian. She says that people learn that "God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man," and in addition, they learn that "God was male," (Hooks 18). The belief that God is supposed to be male established the patriarchal thinking that women are supposed to take on and behave in the subordinate role. The idea that God proclaimed that men should be the ones to possess the power over everything in the world also reinforced the persistent notion. Moreover in the subject that religion had a notable influence on patriarchy, there is the traditional origin story represented by Adam and Eve, the first nudes. In the Genesis in the Bible, Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the tree out of temptation. When God found out that Eve had perpetrated His order, God told the woman, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee," (Hooks 48). This excerpt from the Genesis gave men the justification for being inherently dominant and superior over everything as well as perceiving women to be subordinate. Hooks conveys that the prevalent teachings of various religions such as Christianity heavily influenced individuals and institutions alike determine who should be in charge and who should comply with that authority.
John Berger sums up these structures to effectively understand it in one simple phrase, "men act and women appear," (47). I can clearly see this notion in motion when I see celebrities of both genders. While a man's looks are supplementary to his career, a woman's looks matter particularly due to patriarchal thought's firm influence on society throughout history. My views on art and media portrayal of both genders had changed from being unaware of it to being aware of it. The portrayal of the social structure based on what both art and media depicts men and women is a mentality that has yet to be thoroughly grasped instead of being too overlooked or unexamined. Because of the social structure's prevalence, it is considered normal or standard in reality. If people were able to find a way to think without too much emphasis on one's own sex as well as break down their understanding of patriarchy, society may be able to view the person without depending on the widespread patriarchal mentality.
Work Cited:
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books. 1972.
Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy." 2004. The Will to Change. New York: Atria Books. 2004. 17-33.
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