The Male Gaze as a Result of Patriarchy

Hanna Gebre-Meskel
Art and Women
Professor Doris Cacoilo
Post 1

The Male Gaze & Patriarchy

 In its simplest definition, a patriarchy is a government or an institution that is controlled by dominantly male powers. Almost all societies in the world, particularly in Western society, identify with the patriarchy and have since their origins. This pervades through legislation, social issues, education, and so forth, in a way that benefits men so much that they are blind to the oppressions of others. Author and feminist Bell Hooks describes patriarchy in The Will to Change as “the political system that shapes and informs male identity and sense of self from birth until death” (Hooks, 17). Women are, of course, not considered in this political system--unless they get in the way. In her book, Hooks specifically recalls a moment in which she was punished for not falling into her place as a woman and letting the man shine when she beats her brother in a game of marbles. Her father becomes violent with her to punish her for her success, rather than her brother for his failure. It is a sad but accurate display of female oppression in the name of male empowerment.

Patriarchal societies are centered completely on the interests of men, and punishes those who aren't. When the patriarchy and the effect that it has on male superiority is understood, an entitlement that is extended to even the most average men, it is easy to deduce why the oppression of women seems to be encouraged everywhere one looks. 

The media, particularly advertisement, is frequently criticized for their objectification of women, but we've seen little progression to remedy that fact.  Gucci in this ad is not only selling clothes but also the idea of power, demonstrated  by the woman's vulnerable position in this man's lap. Image taken from isawisniewska.com 

Many men looking at this ad would likely not even notice the bottle of cologne between this woman's oiled breasts.  In this ad, the woman's body  is being used as a display to advertise the cologne. Almost like a backdrop. Seeing a beautiful woman naked in real life is usually not so easy as typing in "ads that sexualize women"  into Google, but the media makes the female body seem very accessible and may encourage men to feel entitled to them. Image taken from tumblr.com

The media is the most obvious representation of women's oppression because it is the 21st century's most accessible form of art. In today's advertisements, it is easy to see how women's bodies are used casually and for male pleasure. Art scholars would say this is to satisfy the "male gaze". The portrayal of women in art is traditionally to satisfy the male gaze, which means women are positioned in order to please a male viewer. 

A lesser known painting by Giacomo Palma Vecchio dating from the 1520s. Image taken from metabunker.dk

"Everything is addressed to him. Everything must appear to be the result of his being there. It is for him that the figures have assumed their nudity," John Berger writes in Ways of Seeing. The woman pictured in the painting before is naked because she is not wearing any clothes, but nude because she is put on display for the spectator. She is not naked for her own comfort or even her own sexuality--she is naked for the pleasure of the intended viewer. Most paintings portraying women, especially nude oil paintings from the Renaissance, contain this same theme. The goal of satisfying the male gaze in art has persisted throughout the decades, evidenced in art, media, fashion, and so on.

I became familiar with the male gaze at a very young age. I started growing breasts at around nine years old, so by the time I was eleven, despite my height and the fact that I was almost always in a school uniform, men in the street would catcall me and make comments about my body or how "sexy" I was, the same way they do to me now as a grown woman. My sexuality was forced onto me far before I was ready to accept it. Growing up, my body felt like public property. This combined with the historic hyper-sexualization of WOC  in America, as well as my experience in predominantly white schools, I've always been painfully aware of patriarchal ideals and the consequently demanding male gaze. 

In the morning I typically put on an outfit I like, do my makeup, and look in the mirror feeling beautiful and ready for the day. By the time that it's the evening and I'm walking to the train, I regret wearing my skinny jeans or red lipstick, or whatever made the men who saw me today feel like harassing me. Strange men make me feel nude when I'm fully dressed. But what I'm wearing doesn't really mean anything. There have been plenty of days I was wearing sweatpants, no makeup, hair up, pimples, and still a man would try to remind me I'm sexy and call me a bitch for not appreciating it. I think that every woman in Western society knows how it feels to walk past a group of men and quietly pray that none of them tries to talk to you. This unwanted attention from men isn't really about how good-looking a woman is at all--it's completely about men asserting their power over and entitlement to any female they see. Men who catcall are metaphorically whipping their penises out and yelling "Look at me, I'm a man!" and producing the same amount of discomfort as if they did. 

Street harassment is a popular political topic. But the importance of the male gaze interferes with other everyday activities, too. I once had a job hostessing at a fine dining restaurant. The other host was a boy and always wore a button down and black pants, very simple. I was never given a dress code, it was just presumed that I should dress nice, so I usually dolled myself up a bit for fun. One day, though, I didn't feel like doing my hair but still wore a dress and put on makeup. My hair was in a neat bun rather than straightened and down. Within the first ten minutes of my showing up to work, my co-host, my manager, and another co-worker had asked me why I didn't have my hair down and if I was okay. I was amazed that they cared how I looked more than I did, but maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. I'm a woman, after all--what else did they hire me for if not to look pretty at the front door? How good could my customer service possibly be if I didn't have long hair framing my face and billowing in the breeze?

My experience as a girl in America has made me want to shrink into a corner. Being female and being black, I was obviously told all the time to "be quiet" and "lower your voice", no matter how loud the boys were being. It seemed the only way to avoid being loud was to be silent.  I was warned everyday by my mother not to eat too many french fries or I'd look like that fat lady over there, and not allowed to wear shorts until I had the money to buy them myself. I was told to study so I wouldn't be stupid, but couldn't answer too many questions in class for fear of being intimidating. And the list goes on endlessly. "A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself," John Berger points out (Berger, 46). Being a "good girl" was always a small space I knew I couldn't fit into, so when I stopped trying to is when I became a "nasty woman". Being yourself as a woman in America is revolutionary in itself.

In this spoken word performance, Lily Myers also captures what I'm trying to say about how women are pressured to shrink into their roles so that men may more easily grow into theirs. Video taken from youtube.com

Our analysis of the difference between being naked and nudity helped me see some aspects of the media and some of my experiences as a woman more clearly. It explains why I feel perfectly comfortable with myself and my body, but suddenly feel very uncomfortable when it is being watched or criticized without my permission. I yearn to exist without being on display. I want to simply be, not to "appear", and this is a privilege women must go on an uphill battle to earn.