Blog Post 1

Beroso Awundaga

Art and Women

Ms.Dociela

2/7/2017

Male Gaze Post 1

One of the primary scopophilic pleasures is thus the objectification of women. Think of the pin-up girl, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, or the positioning of Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch (1955). Such images identify the straight male as the one who looks and the female as the one who is looked at. He is active; she is passive.

The Male Gaze is described as similar to gender relations as it records the inequalities related, and also the secularization of the female image that remains culturally relevant today. The images shown, happen to assert that men have more sexual power, and as quoted “They are evidence of gendered difference…. Because any effort to replace the woman in these images with a man violates “the assumptions of the likely viewer’ (Berger, 1972: 64). That is, it does not fit with expectations but transgresses them and so seems wrong. The male gaze is a concept where women become the object in a picture while men stare at the body that is presented to them for their sexual satisfactory.

Also, why is it in persuasive art and popular culture, well, they are many reasons, and the main reason, is due to men being brainwashed by society to believe that beautiful woman are those in movies and magazines. The male gaze is also the way women look at themselves and other woman. This reason is why we see woman subjugated with these traits constantly in ads, and other forms of media and norms that make up our popular culture today. Some woman look to achieve these traits so that men will look at them and want them in a sexual way, but some woman feel subjected by the male gaze and don’t agree with it.

Today, you cannot even look at a magazine without questioning your appearance. Magazines that advertise woman are showing them through the male gaze. Advertising woman in sexual ways, and also making them seem as a perfect woman without any flaws, is now the prevalent way of advertisement. Woman are shown as sex objects, revealing skin and body parts, to attract a male audience and leave woman wanting to appear like they do. The media sort of tricks men in to thinking the woman need to appear like these woman through pop culture, in-order to attract men. Because of this, a lot of insecurities through young woman, along with eating disorders and surgery to change their appearance. Society today is now allowing men to look at woman as objects and allow themselves to be a victim of the ‘male gaze’.

Patriarchy happens to be a structure where males dominate and rule over women. In Bells hooks essay named … he note the following, “Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation” (1). Men every day happen to practice patriarchy according to Bell Hooks. Patriarchy is where woman are always expected to take on a subordinate role when in relation to a powerful man. This believe and false-truths are constantly and repeatedly taught in every institution encountered by men and woman such as schools, clubs, sports arenas as well as churches. Patriarchal thinking is a natural way to organize life, and this is manifested in both the minds of woman, men and how they both approach daily life.  Patriarchy can someday come to an end and only through what Bell Hocks states, “ To end male pain, to respond effectively to male crisis, we have to name the problem. We have to both acknowledge that the problem is patriarchy and work to end patriarchy. (5)” Bell hooks call to each fellow man to actually acknowledge and take on the problem themselves.

I wasn’t not really aware of what the male gaze was and how it affected our everyday life. But after reading Bell Hooks and John Berger, I then became a lot more aware of what the male gaze was and even learned a lot more about patriarchy. The media always portrayed patriarchy and the male gaze as if it was a common theme and norm to our everyday life but now I realize that it is wrong and that objectifying and taking advantage of women is not okay at all. I also agree with Hooks and I believe that men have to come to accept that Patriarchy is part of our everyday life. Once most men accept this fact, then we can truly band together and successfully destroy the patriarchy structure. It will both be beneficial to man and women to destroy patriarchy structure.

This Photo illustrates that it is up to men to grant equality to women. Also, illustrates that men are in control, and they are the main instigators of patriarchy.

Citations-

1.     Daqwandayb. "Evolution of Male Gaze (with Images, Tweets) · Dondelli." Storify. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.

2.     Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Feminist Historiography." Economic and Political Weekly 25.31 (1990): 1735-736. Imagine Borders. Web. 7 Feb. 2017.

3.     ’Seeing Comes Before Words. The Child Looks And Recognizes Before It, Can Speak., ’But There Is Also Another Sense In Which Seeing Comes Before Words. It, and Is Seeing Which Establishes Our Place In The Surrounding World; We. Commonplace’ Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling (n.d.): n. pag. Ways of Seeing .com. Web. 7 Feb. 2017.