Vanessa Spadotto
February 9, 2016
February 9, 2016
For
decades upon decades women have been portrayed as objects in media. From
European oil paintings to mainstream advertisements we have seen women
portrayed submissively in the gaze of the beholder, which is ultimately assumed
to be a man. In John Berger’s excerpt of “Ways of Seeing,” Berger explains just
how women have been portrayed in paintings and how the Male Gaze has dominated
women for years. Berger begins to explain a woman’s presence in paintings, or
in life, is based on “what can or cannot be done to her,” whereas a man’s
presence is based on what he “can do to you or for you” (Berger, 46). Berger
further explains that, “men survey women before treating them” (Berger, 46),
suggesting that men will observe women and treat them the way they appear. A
woman’s appearance means so much to a man that it has so much to do with how
she will be ultimately treated by him. This is amazing because we see this in
our everyday lives, men and even women scrutinize other women by the way they
appear and treat them as such without knowing how or who they are. In our class
discussions we discussed how Berger says, “ Men look at women. Women watch
themselves being looked at” (Berger, 47), this quote resonated with me the most
and I continually spoke about it with my peers because for so long it was
difficult to explain this concept. Women constantly feel watched and if not
watched, we are always hyperaware of what we are doing and how we look while
doing something. Berger explains how this feeling has been conditioned in our
minds over years and how a “nude” has made men feel entitled to looking at
women.
Similarly, in Bell Hooks book, “ The
Will to Change” Hooks explains what patriarchy truly is and how it not only
affects women but men as well. Hooks explains how she grew up in a patriarchal
family that continuously told her to act more like a lady and saying that she
could not play with marbles like her brother. On the other hand, her brother
was constantly reminded to act manly, be loud, and be assertive. Hooks’ father
made sure that neither her nor her brother would confuse the gender roles.
Hooks recalls her father feeling disturbed at his children, “his daughter,
aggressive and competitive, was a better player than his son. His son was a
passive; the boy did not really seem to care who won and was willing to give
over marbles on demand. Dad decided that this play had to end, that both my
brother and I needed to learn a lesson about gender roles” (Hooks, 20). Unfortunately
both her and her brother experienced the negative affects of patriarchy. Hooks
suggests that men are not the issue in this patriarchal society; instead we
have to “challenge both its psychological and its concrete manifestations in
life” (Hooks, 33). It is difficult in this society to go against the
patriarchal ways that we have been so conditioned to be in accordance with.
Many women, of course, are against patriarchy and we all want to fight against
the male dominated system, however we find ourselves conforming to these ideals
nonetheless. In contrast to women, Hooks believes that patriarchy has created a
“male crisis” and unfortunately men do not realize that the fight is not
against them, however it is against male patriarchy, which Hooks explains to be
differentiated. Our main issue, Hooks says, is that we as a society fear
fighting against patriarchy, which has corrupted us all.
Prior to this course I was unaware
of the male gaze and how it affected women everyday. Truthfully I believed that
men just felt entitled to do so, but I never knew the concepts behind this. I
was very interested reading Berger’s piece and how it related to modern media
today and why women are constantly scrutinized and aware of the men around her
and how she looks to men. I was also surprised to uncover that men are always
perceived as the audience and that men are the only people looking at art,
media, or advertisements. This ties into Hooks’ book and how patriarchy has
dominated society for so long. Of course it is known that patriarchy affects
women, but not many are aware that patriarchy affects men negatively as well.
Men believe that feminists attacking patriarchy means that they are attacking
men, but on the contrary patriarchy is affecting everyone negatively. These
readings have brought upon a new knowledge of feminism and art that I have
never experienced before. As someone who was not particularly interested deeply
in art, I see how we can learn so much form paintings and how things have come
to be due to artwork from so long ago.
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