The Male Gaze

The male Gaze is the way men portray women in the world from a males’ perspective in all facets of society through media, art and everyday aspects of our daily lives. The male gaze is a sexualized portrayal of women which involves three standpoints (1) the person behind the camera, (2) the character characterized on camera, and (3) the spectators (viewers watching the imagery).  The male gaze is so powerful that it distorts the comprehension of the spectator that two people committing to the same action can have different imagery and thoughts to the spectator’s psyche. As John Berger states, “If a woman throws a glass on the floor, this is an example of how she treats her own emotion of anger and so of how she would wish to be treated by others. If a man does the same, his action is only read an an expression of his anger” (Berger 47).  The male gaze is solely for pleasure for the audience whom by and large are males as well. The male gaze has a profound effect on women as well, women who are more easy to look at or in certain aspects considered to be more attractive receive preferential treatment than their counter parts. This places an undue burden on women forcing them to be objects of sight rather than their own merit.  One does not have to look far to see the unfortunate circumstances women face just walking in the streets of major cities or suburbia facing relentless cat calls, chants or even stalking by male spectators. Such actions at times can lead to women dressing in certain ways to divert the male gaze away from themselves in order to have a little peace of mind doing something as simple and ordinary as walking. “One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female” (Berger 47).

The male gaze and its patriarchal form is not a new phenomenon it is deeply entrenched in the western world, a lot of paintings from Western Europe depict the male gaze. Including various media outlets in the Americas today, networks and advertisers have obtained the framework of the male gaze, and have adapted it to suit their advertisements, and newscast by sexualizing their messages and products they deliver to viewers. As Armstrong Williams once said, “There are two sayings that are familiar in every news room across the country: (1) sex sells; (2) if it bleeds it leads”. I have come to understand that the male gaze is truly very powerful for example; of the three major news networks in the U.S, one without mention of its name or its questionable material it chooses to air out. Has captured the male gaze in its objectionable form where male news cast often times than not are portrayed with a suit and tie, but their female newscasts are portrayed by their tight short dresses and high heels. As to not only degrade the presenter but the viewer as well in subjectively deciding how the viewer would like to receive their source of news. What’s more surprisingly or rather not is that this news networks leads by ratings than all others, questioning those of sound mind whether the male gaze has such a profound effect in the 21^st century.