John Berger describes the male gaze as the observation of woman from a male perspective.  This interaction between a male and a female at this point in time is one of the most crucial moments of their lives.  In this very moment is where a woman shows off her assets, charm, and good looks so that she can find a man who will want to marry and provide for her. A woman wants to show a man by her walk that she is very elegant and light on her feet. She shows him that she is smart enough to manage a house and kids but not too smart. If she comes off being too intelligent it becomes a turn off for the man. A woman must also be aware of the words that she says to that she doesn’t come off too strong and been seen as a woman who can not be controlled. At this very same moment that is monumental for woman it is very crucial for a man as well. For a man this is the moment that the man shows off his presence to everyone. Now either one of two things will happen, one his presence will take over the room with power or no one will notice him. In order for a man’s presence to hold power depends on his good looks and wealth. Now as this both the man and woman show off their good and therein lies the man’s glaze is born (Berger 45-47).  This concept becomes very popular in culture because it shows the dominance that a man has and puts a woman in her place (at the bottom of the social scale).  Being that men were majority of the painters were men they painted what they wanted to see. They painted women as naked, helpless, and scared. They showed women as being ashamed of their body. If a woman is ashamed of her body means that she is not comfortable in her own skin, which can mean that she does not a lot of self-confidence. Men painted this more and more so that the more that woman saw this maybe they would believe and stay in their “rightful place”. This type of painting became more popular as the idea was beginning to be challenged by women painters. They started to paint woman naked but with a mirror in their hand looking proudly as their self. The role that women played was now coming into question as more paintings started to depict women with more self-confidence. 

I have come to understand this terminology throughout the different roles that women and men play into today’s society. In today’s society even though women have become more well respected there are still some challenges that woman have to face due to the fact that men still want to been as superior to women. It is harder for women to get into management positions due to a number of factors. Men tend to feel inferior when they have a woman as a manger, women usually don’t get picked because they assume women will soon get pregnant after a certain time and they do not want to pay them for the time off, and also men tend to think women are too emotional to make the hard choices for the company. I have seen this within my own job on more than one cation.  For example, I work at the ShopRite of Newark and for the front end where the cashiers work they needed more supervisors as they became to higher more cashiers. A woman name Jennifer was up for the promotion but was turned down when our superiors found out that Jenn was pregnant and gave the job to a man. I have been put in a position where one of my friends was in a controlling relationship and made her feel like she did not have much self-worth. At this point I started to understand the concept of how men try to put women down in order to control them. Coming to understand this concept has made me more self-aware when it comes to the business world and motivates me to work harder in order to people wrong. I know that when I go into a business I know that I have to dress a certain way (pants suit, flats and pony tail) because if I wore to wear something that was more tight fitting men would not look at me as a leader but as sex symbol. I know that I can slack and must work a little harder than others which I have grown accustomed to.  Even though that this circumstance is not right it has motivated me throughout my life to work even harder to accomplish my goals. My role that I play is to always defy every single odd against women.