The Power of the Male Gaze

Who Runs the World? Men?

According to John Berger, the male gaze is the way women are depicted in arts in order to appeal to

Dolce & Gabbana Advertisement 2002 

masculine desires. In the end, women merely become symbol of sex instead of actual people. Being a young women, I am offended that females can be scene in those ways. Also, it upsets me that they allow it happen.  As Berger stated in his article Ways of Seeing, "Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated"(Berger 46). As the author stated, because women are portraying themselves the way they do, they will only be seen as a "piece of meat". The "male gaze" is so persuasive in pop culture and arts because it is eye catching. For example, in the picture to the left, the luxury brand "Dolce & Gabbana" uses a women in a sexual position with her skin out in order to represent their brand. The fact that she is showing so much skin and is laying in that position brings a lot of attention to the ad. Honestly, I believe this method works. Personally, I cannot ignore such advertisement, in fact, I would have to give it a send look. It is very striking, a person would not imagine seeing on a clothing/fragrance etc advertisement. The black and white video below was taken from the 1964 movie "The Postman Always Rings Twice". From the moment the woman is introduced, the camera focuses on her body which is slim and guarantees the attention of males. Overall, the women is simply seen as a sexual object. Before the movie introduces her (Cora), the view already notices her beauty because she is admiring herself in her pocket mirror. This scene is easily detected because the male gaze is common and society has gotten used to seeing it.
Almost like male gaze, patriarchy is a system in which men are dominant and women are submissive. In Bell Hooks, a young girl is forced to belittle herself in order to fit into their society's custom of women being below men. " His daughter, aggressive and competitive, was a better player than his son. His son was 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 appropriate gender roles" (Bell Hooks 2). Because she was more competitive and "masculine" than her brother, her dad felt like she needed to be taught a lesson. Since the girl was acting outside of her custom gender role, she had to be reminded how who she was supposed to be and how she was supposed to act. Personally, I feel like patriarchy is so deep rooted into our lives that it would be very difficult to get rid of. It is everywhere from families to religion, this system is embedded in my cultures. Patriarchy is still alive and well in society today. Weather it is in the workplace or parenting, it still exists. In the workplace, women make 77 cents to every dollar that men make, also, they have a lower percentage of CEO positions which proves that men are still dominant in the work field. In parenting, girls are taught to be sweet, cute, and quiet whereas boys are taught to be loud and aggressive which leads them to being in control. In the picture below, Donald Trump and his members form restrictions on abortions. The fact that the president does not understand how it feels to be pregnant, he should not have authority to say what goes on with abortions. Personally, I believe that even though he is the president, he shouldn't be allowed to make rules about pregnancies because he is not a women. He has never been impregnated so he should not have any say.

Time.com January 23,2017

Females have been oppressed forever. In art history, women were always depicted naked because that is what a man was interested in seeing. "This nakedness is not, however, an expression of her own feelings; it is a sign of her submission to the owner's feelings or demands (Berger 52). It seems that women live for men and have no say or feeling in anything they do. The fact that the quote says that she follows her "owners" demands makes her sound like she is nearly property which is very degrading and humiliating. In the picture below by

Nell Gwynne 1618-1680

Nell Gwynne 1618-1680, you can tell that the woman's posture and facial expression is directed toward a male. At first I was confused as to why there was a baby in the painting, but the, I came to a realization that the baby in the picture may be a female and represents what she too will be doing in the future in order to satisfy the male gaze. Sadly, artwork like this is still depicted in society today.