The Male Gaze

I believe the Male Gaze is the way a man views a woman.  The male sees her as an object that is there to please him.  This link on The Male Gaze tells you about some interesting things as well as giving some information that we have discussed in class. "Men act and women appear."(Berger, 47)  This means that a woman is brought up to just sit there and be available for a man that will come up to her to essentially please him.  There is also this interesting comparison that is addressed in the reading.  It says that to be nude and to be naked are two completely different things. "To be naked is to be one's self.  To be nude is to be seen naked by others  and yet not recognized for oneself." (Berger, 54)  This means that when a woman is naked it shows who she really is as a person whereas when she is just nude she has the disguise of a naked person.  The spectator of the male gaze is of course the man who is viewing the woman naked.  The nude paintings are created by a male who is pleasing himself as well as other men who may see his painting.  The woman being painted is almost never showing herself off to those in the painting with her.  Instead she is shown in a position facing her viewers.  A woman wants to be looked at by a male.  "She has to survey everything she is, and everything she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life." (Berger, 46)  Berger uses this strong quote to tell us that women are constantly looking at themselves because the way a man looks at her is very important.  If she is naked in front of someone she truly loves it means a whole lot more then just getting naked for everyone else.  Kenneth Clark says that "to be naked is simply to be without clothes, whereas the nude is a form of art." (Berger, 53) The nude is seen as a work of art because women were created to appeal to the man.  According to the Adam and Eve story, the man was created to please God and the woman was created to please the man.  The male gaze is pervasive in art because it has become such a popular phenomenon worldwide.  In today's society there are still advertisements where women are shown in skimpy clothing being looked at by a man.  Nothing has really changed much today in terms of the topic of the male gaze.  Men still look at woman maybe not as much nude paintings but more of women in tight fitting clothes or bikinis.  Marketers use that appeal to raise sales because it is something that will never really change.  Some men will still say that a woman is an object there to only satisfy him but it has become much more than that.  Yes, you can say some woman still enjoy showing off to men publicly, but there has become a lot more women who today would only show off to their significant other because to the woman being naked is a special thing that you share with the one you love.  The two pictures below show Venus looking out to her spectator and she is not paying any attention to anyone else in the picture.  In the second picture specifically, Venus is laying down showing the front of her body and it looks like she doesn't even know that there is a woman and a little girl looking for something behind her.  When you look closely at the picture you can also see a little puppy laying on Venus's bed looking down at her legs.

Patriarchy is defined as the male dominance.  The male are to be superior and women are to be weak.  If anyone is to try to become more powerful then a man, the man is told to use violence and their strength to keep their power.  Patriarchy according to bell hooks was taught in religion so many people were brought up to believe in it.  "In church, God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man." (hooks, 18)  This means that women were made to live under the rule of men and make sure that no one tried to surpass his power.  In order for the man to have all the power he needed to have people beneath him and that's where the women are.  Men like holding all the power and do not what it to be taken away from them.  This still holds today than many men like to be the one in charge but society is slowly changing where we are starting to see some women taking charge. 

From the readings, my view of art and media has changed slightly.  I always knew that men were seen as superior and that they receive more pay and benefits then women do.  I never knew that nude paintings were so important at one time and how they basically defined a woman's role just by looking at the painting.  When I look at a painting of a woman looking out to her viewers, I now see that she is looking for the person who may be her lover who she is pleasing and giving her attention to.  Even in movies and television shows today I have noticed that the Male Gaze is a phenomenon that will never fade away.  They always show a girl dressed a specific way and when she is walking they show her in almost a slow motion kind of way.  The first thing they show you is her shoes and then it slowly works it's way up to her face.  The man is always looking at her and observing her every move and the woman always knows she is being looked at which I find so fascinating.  The male gaze is around us almost 24/7 but sometimes we are blinded by other things going on in life that we just don't pay as much attention to it.

Works Cited:
John Berger's, "Ways of Seeing"
bell hooks, Understanding Patriarchy from the book "The Will to Change"




Painting of Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Venus of Urbino by Titan