Before defining the term “male gaze” let me explain the meaning of the word “gaze” which is “to look steadily and intently, especially in admiration, surprise or thought” so a lot of you probably think it is as simple as throwing  the term “male” in front of the term "gaze", and you simply get a view from the male perspective but not quite. The male gaze is basically the demeanor in which males view women. Therefore the portrayal, which in fact is the woman is determined to be desirable or not only from the prospective of the male spectator. Men essentially objectifying women in a type of degrading manner in which they objectify women as sex symbols or even a sex toys. Berger states in his work “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” and what makes matters worse is the fact that these men are not the only ones objectifying these woman but these women are also objectifying themselves (Berger, 47). It is believed that “the surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed woman" and because of this she must objectify herself in the gaze of the male eye (47). 

"Cartoon of Men portrayed as a dog viewing the woman as a piece of meat"

As I am sure many of you have watch shows or even movies and may or may not have noticed how often the male gaze is used and how mainstream media capitalizes on the “male gaze”, indicating a fundamental power asymmetry. These particular portrayals are all over the media whether it is on the television, billboard or even poster it very much exist and these “visual pleasures” are very much present. Of course this may seem to be normal considering how common these images occur or because many may say “why do these women portraying themselves in such a degrading manner” or “these woman have a choice” when in reality it is not that easy to explain. The fact that these women are objectified is only the beginning considering the fact that the way that these women appear to the spectator or all men is essentially the success of her life, as crazy as it may sound. The spectator is also the owner of this object who happens to be the woman because looking is a form of possession. 

                                                  "Snow white traumatized by the male gaze"

The male gaze is pervasive in art and in popular culture because as many of you may know it surrounds us no matter where me go and today’s society and mainstream media often demonstrate the male gaze in many forms giving men this type of power that in a sense allows them to control not only media but the public. Study show that “the attitudes and values which informed that tradition are expressed through other more widely diffused media - advertising, median and the essential way of seeing women, the essential use to which images are has not changed” which is extremely true (64).The era we live in today has lead us to believe that not all women are valued or that not all women are appreciated. Mass media as well as society makes it clear that the only women that hold value are those that are beautiful and appear attractive, similar to what I mentioned earlier when bringing up the matter of how the spectator who is the man or men are the ones who determine whether or not the woman is desirable. The male gaze is pervasive because when you look back at the history of art one realizes that the nudity of women was something that was simply not cherished or valued but when men were naked things were different considering naked sculptures and portraits of men were praised. One may ask in all reality what is the sexual purpose of one being naked and one may say because we were born this way or as Berger describes “it would seem that nakedness has a positive visual value in its own right: we want to see the other naked: the other delivers to us the sight of themselves and we seize upon it - sometimes quite regardless of whether it is for the first time or the hundredth." (58). It appears it is a form of art but yet the history of art says something totally different when looking at the nakedness of women who are not appreciated at all.

Patriarchy is viewed as some type of social disease and Bell Hook defines Patriarchy as “ a political-social system that insist that males are inertly dominating , superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence” (Hooks,18). This may very much seem to be a social disease that threatens our nation because like I mentioned earlier with the male gaze that men truly do control all the power well at least it appears that way in both the art form and in reality. Men barely think about patriarchy and half of them do not know what the word means but the one thing for certain is that they want or believe they possess more power than women as you may have already noticed the moment the spectator lays eyes on the woman he becomes her owner. As a male I can admit that a lot of guys simply do not think about patriarchy and society says nothing about patriarchy because it is how males are brought up. Men should be powerful and violence is okay but when it comes to women they should not show acts of violence and should obey men and do as they please which really should not be the case. Hooks mentions how “as their daughter I was taught that it was my role to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and future others, my brother was taught that it was his role to be served; to provide; to be strong and to refuse care take or future others” and this is how society teaches us how to live (18). Yet little has changed from the old time where this logic made sense and today’s society. Even at an economic standpoint, study show that men are actually paid more than women even if they are doing the same job and this is due to the patriarchy here in America because it is a part of a belief that will never go away.

Work Citied :

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.