The Male Gaze

Susannah and the Elders. By: Jacobo Tintoretto
Another example of women being a victim to the Male Gaze.
http://raggedclothcafe2.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/susannah-and-the-elders-jacopo-tintoretto.jpg

      Have you ever stopped for a second and thought to yourself how one thing or one idea became so popular so quickly? That is a direct result of various things like media, society, and everything else in-between. We have become accustomed to accepting (for the most apart) whatever is around us or presented to us. Ladies and Gentlemen the male gaze took the same course of development in which became very pervasive in art and culture due to the constant display of women in art showing some skin and being objectified. This term “male gaze” relates to one simple idea between men and women.

     According to many, male gaze is simply the point of view that a white heterosexual man has of women in this world. Those views can be translated into various things. For example, a white man can view a woman simply as an object with having no respect other than enjoying the physical sexual pleasure he derives from this “gaze”. It is not hard at all to find a piece of art work that portrays a vision of what I just discussed. If you scroll down and take a look at the painting from Jacob Tintoretto, the woman is completed exposed and vulnerable to the men in the picture. The men are displayed as having the freedom of being able to seek women in whichever way they desire due to the feeling of empowerment that men had around that point in time.

     As we begin to discuss the next popular topic, patriarchy, we continue to see how men have the obligation to create this appearance acceptable and demanded by society. Hooks mentions, “Patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence” (Hooks, 18). This specific quote explains everything about the word patriarchy and what it stands for. As a male I was raised always being taught to be tough and do not show any weakness because I am a “man” and men are powerful. This mindset will make you truly look at art and history and put everything into perspective as to how women must have felt, always being objectified.

Judith and Holofernes.
Displays two women trying to erase the Male Gaze. 
Was also mention in the text.
By: Artemisia Gentileschi 

      If you look to the left, this painting displays the constant struggles and unhappiness women faced due to patriarchy. Women did not appreciate the way men made them feel and were always ready to attempt to make a change. Women were not treated fairly and Berger even describes how men thought about women, "Men act and women appear" (Berger, 47). This painting to the left is a perfect expression of women handling patriarchy and killing it by the head, thus killing the root of all evil in their eyes.
   
    After learning more about patriarchy I think it has made me more emotionally aware of the impact you can have on a person, positive and negative, just by selecting the type of way to speak to them and treat them. We all are each one individual piece moving in this big puzzle called life, and if we could work together and push for equality like women have been fighting for, then that goal is reachable and we could finally stand up and say patriarchy exists no more.

Male Gaze Video:

Works 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.