Vanessa Spadotto
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.