In John Berger’s Ways
of Seeing, he expresses the concept of “ what is the male gaze” and bases
it on “men act and women appear.” Berger argues using several art from the
European Renaissance to make his claim. When women are painted in the nude he
claims that the painter is panting the woman watching herself being looked at:
women were painted as being aware of being seen by a male spectator, further
implying that women are the basis of the male gaze.
Given that
most artists from the Renaissance were men, they painted women the way they
wanted to see women; vulnerable, and lacking their womanly essence (pubic hair)
making it perfectly acceptable to paint a woman alone in a bath before being
raped, or “admiring herself” in a mirror. Berger’s argument is that women want
men to look at them with sexual desire, and uses the common image of a mirror
to base his claim. If a woman is being “vain” then she is well aware what she
is telling society, therefore making it ok to have a man sexualize her in any
and every possible way.
When
hearing Berger speak on his BBC broadcast, or reading his notable quotes on
women and the male gaze, the first thing that comes to mind is having several
men honk at me or stare wide eyed on hot summer days. Every woman has at one point
in her life experienced the awkward walk down a crowded street, alone or
sometimes not even, having men stare and shout demeaning things and even the
occasional honk and whistle.
I remember
one time walking home alone from my elementary school, 7th or 8th
grade to be exact, I had a man drive very slowly on the street I was walking on
telling me overtly sexual things and blowing me kisses. This was the first time
I had ever experienced anything like this and got very annoyed, so I told the
man just what was his problem and called him a sick bastard. Naturally he got
irate and began to yell at me and claimed that my shorts were the problem and
that I shouldn’t wear them if I didn’t want anyone to say this to me, then told
me to go fuck myself and drove off. I never understood why any one would use my
shorts as an excuse to be disrespectful. When asking my uncle who was the only
one home at the time, his response was “ you should be wearing pants” and that
was his only advice.
This
experience alone mimics Berger’s concept of the male gaze. In his eyes men
aren’t the problem, its women wanting to be noticed so they go through some
measures, sometimes extreme to get noticed. According to Berger I was harassed
because I subconsciously asked for it. So with that being said, I can only
wonder what his take is on rape? What was the woman wearing? Was she drinking?
Did she accept your welcome into your home? Naturally his broadcast and books
don’t mention rape, but with his way of thinking as far as women being sexualized,
what can one guess is his stance on rape? One must wonder.
But the idea
of women trying to please with their looks and body to impress men doesn’t stop
with Berger, or with men even. Over the past weekend a well-known and respected
“feminist”, Gloria Steinem spoke on the up and coming election and claims that young
women who are voting for Democratic nominee, Bernie Sanders, are only doing so
to “impress” the boys and get their attention. The male gaze has gone from the
way we view women as well as how we think apparently.
This way of
being and thinking ties in with Bell Hooks’ definition of what she believes
patriarchy is. According to Hooks “Patriarchy 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 uses examples from the
Bible and her own personal struggles with her older brother and her family
pushing her to be the caretaker all women are. She argues the views of the
church and its teachings that God is “male” and he created man to “rule the
world and everything in it and was the work of women to help men perform these
tasks, to obey, and to always assume subordinate role in relation to a powerful
man.”
Religion
and its teachings and ideals instilled in believers is one of the main reasons
why patriarchy is what it is. I think of the election again, and look to the
GOP and its candidates, that are mostly men speaking on pro life vs. pro
choice. Men speaking on what women should do with their bodies and feeling they
have the right to speak on women’s bodies. Or when we hear of rape cases, I
think of Sublimes “Date Rape” a song that tells the story of a young women who
met a man at a bar and is drugged and later raped by said man. When in court
the man screams “she lies that little slut” and while it is a song, it mimics
the way so many view the unfortunate cases we view all too often. The girl went
to his house, drunk or not, therefore she was willing, therefore not rape.
Furthermore Meninst leader, Daryush Valizadeh,
a pro rape advocate tried to put together a rally this past weekend bringing
together other men who believe that rape should be legalized stating that if it
happens on private property, it should be legalized. Therefor taking away any
piece of human dignity a woman has when surrounded by four walls. Further
connecting to Hooks’ definition. This concept of patriarchy takes away a
woman’s dignity and ability to do well or better. Sometimes it is as simple as
demanding your wife stay home to cook and care for the kids, and others its as
serious as beating your spouse because your man, your big and more powerful and
can do whatever you want because society deems you able.
The way we
view women, as men or as women can be both innocent and also threatening. We
can view women as strong, independent powerful beings, or as sexual objects to
be trivialized both on the street and in our homes, may it be in person or in a
magazine. We can view women as intelligent and free thinkers, or we can say
they’re boy crazy and out to please man, and therefore not intelligent and so
on and so forth.
Berger’s male
gaze is just as important as Hooks’ concept of patriarchy. Both threaten women
from moving forward, because in the end its not just the way men view women and
the world, sadly some women see it that way as well, and until we can fully
pull away from these ideals women will never actually be “equal to men”.
by. Kassandra Perez
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