The Male Gaze

          What is the male gaze? Men and women most probably define the male gaze differently. In my perspective, the male gaze is a sexual influence of a woman for the pleasure of a man; it is the way a man paints a woman for visual pleasure. It is persuasive in art and popular culture because quite frankly the image of a woman, the painting, the appearance and naked body of a woman is beautiful. It is an attraction for all types of audience despite the way that the “model” or the “object” in the work feels. As discussed in class, women and men both portray women in art very differently; the message portrayed to the audience is distinctively obvious. The seduction that the man paints verses the conservative, uncomfortable woman that the female paints. The purpose is to show women as a person not an object and male artists fail to portray that. In their view, they paint what other men want to see, boobs, naked bodies giving themselves to others, and who is to blame in the picture? The woman. Male artists portray women as objects in their images.

            Bell Hooks defines Patriarchy as “the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation” (Hooks, 17).  In further discussion, she emphasizes the characteristic traits, which reflect patriarchy for example, man’s dominance, psychological terrorism and violence. Bell Hooks highlights factors that provoke deeper thinking. Patriarchy is a factor, which highly influences society. “He was taught that for a boy, enjoying violence was a good thing. He was taught that a boy should not express feelings” (Hooks, 19).   It forces men to be tough and fearless, and to not be allowed to show a sign of weakness and cry. They are trained to shift those emotions into anger. Why? Well because as a man, you are more accepted and probably more “normal” if you react in that manner. And if you don’t? You have failed to represent the male dominance as a whole. “We knew one fact for certain: we could not be and act the way we wanted to, doing what we felt like”(Hooks, 19). Patriarchy was controlling individuals and dictating expected behaviors. 

           The entire story that Bell Hooks shares, how she resulted in anger towards her brother and was punished by her father for not behaving the proper way. What is proper after all? Oh, like a lady, calm and accepting of all circumstances. Even her parents display patriarchy as her father takes the role of being dominant and disciplines her and her brother. The mother takes her role, and says, “I tried to warn you. You need to accept that you are just a little girl and girls can’t do what boys do” (Hooks, 21). In addition how the mother comes and tries to justify the reasoning behind it all and show you the mistakes done on your part and the expected consequences of your actions, how the mother’s role is to come and soothe her child after the father maintains his reputation. Bell Hooks helped me view societal mechanisms that are inevitably instilled in parents and begin to continue generation after generation, how kids are taught how they are “supposed to” behave at an age where the mind of a child is not even fully developed.

            Bell Hooks’ article made me zoom into my own life and how these ideas related to me. My parents have instilled behavioral expectations in us since childhood and being the third daughter I was able to view the restrictions we had, and I always wondered…what if I was born a male? A son? Would my rules be different? And well I have yet to get answers because I have a younger brother, and he’s already strayed away from the norms by not being forced to adapt to our culture. Don’t like the food? Don’t worry. These little differences have so much influence on ones character as you grow older. My brother is fourteen, maybe once he goes to high school I will be able to compare the freedom given by my parents and read Bell Hooks’ article one more time, just to compare.

Let’s take a look at the images below to understand the male gaze:

That's the male gaze, a woman completely surrounded by men to view her beauty. She's wearing the color red which represents sex appeal, a  color that attracts others, especially men. 

A complete nude frontal of a woman's body, that's the epitome of a male gaze. The woman's hand gestures represent acceptance, and the man directly in front of her is viewing her as if she's on display for him. 

This video, Male Gaze in Action identifies the “male gaze” in a visual perspective. It is the portrayal of a woman’s appearance to attract the audience of more men. Great job male artists...

After all, in the reading “Ways of Seeing”, it is said, “A man’s presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies” and “A woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her”(Berger, 45-46). 

Work Cited:

Berger, J. (1973). Ways of Seeing (pp. 45-64). London: British Broadcasting Corporation.

Hooks, B. (2004). Understanding Patriarchy. In The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (pp.17-33). New York: Atria Books.