The Male Gaze

     In order to explain the "Male Gaze," you must first know the attitudes that men and women portray when painted. Also, you must take into consideration the spectator's gender, and understand the owner of the artwork to completely see their perspective on the idea of the Male Gaze. This way you will get an expanded idea of the Male Gaze.

     When a male is portrayed in a painting nude, it is to flaunt what he's able to offer to you insinuating that the artist is male. The artist tends to exhibit the dominance of the sexes whether the artist is male or female. And the contrasting view when a female is portrayed in a nude picture, it is to show to the "owner" of the artwork what he cannot have. "A woman's presence expresses her own attitude towards herself and defines what can and cannot be done to her" (Berger 46). You begin to notice that the female's body is always turned to the owners view for pleasurable purposes regardless of her surrounding. assuming that the artist is male, we are able to connect the idea that he is projecting to the viewer; women are merely for pleasure and have no other purpose but to satisfy the spectator of the artwork. This, as well as the term "owner" for the art degrades and objectifies women making them solely for the purpose of the "male gaze." 

Niel Gwynne Liely 1618-1680
  

     The Male Gaze is pervasive in pop culture because it is used as a technique to lure more consumers for the product they are trying to sell. 

Carl's Jr. Super Star with cheese ad
Carl's Jr. is a primary advocate of utilizing sex appeal for almost all of their products.   

For example, this photograph (shown above) exhibits a young woman and a tasty burger. When first taking a look at this picture, you notice the half naked women. It is as if the spectator's owner is trying to send a message that if you eat this burger, you will look like the woman. In addition, the spectator's owner refers to how "size" doesn't matter, giving it an alternate and erotic meaning, stating that the bigger the "product" is, the more feedback you will get. He is successful in doing so, because the use of sex appeal allures more customers making it a successful product. Another example of a Carl's  Jr. ad that successfully uses sex appeal to gain the customer's  interest is their cranberry apple grilled chicken salad commercial featuring Kim Kardashian, a sex icon in the world of publicity. This video explicitly exhibits the carnal desire that Kim Kardashian has for her "clean, crisp, and tasty" salad.  

     Subsequently, this subject also ties to the idea of "patriarchy." According to bell hooks, "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 to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence" (hooks 18). What hooks is explaining is that patriarchy pressures men in becoming a part of the "imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy" (hooks 17). Men are taught at a young age that they must be more aggressive and dominant. They are told to act more manly, a coined term for more domineering nature. For example, hooks explains why God is automatically assumed to be male. We live in a patriarchal society, which allows us to see that males are dominating to females which deems women and everything else to seem weak and inferior. Thus, people automatically perceive God as a male figure, since he is respected with the utmost superior nature. Another example of the effects of a male dominant society that hooks explains is that men are supposedly considered to be more competitive. At one point, hooks was excited to play with marbles; however, she was told that it's a boys game. She insisted and for that, she got beaten up while her father claimed that she is merely a "little girl." She states that, "she was banished-forced to stay alone in the dark" (hooks 21). This example exhibits how women became isolated with no one to consolidate to besides their women peers. This shows that not only women were reprimanded for such behavior, but also men. Hooks' brother did not even have interest in the marbles, yet, he was confined to the patriarchal society's "ideal" way of thinking.

     Moreover, I have began to see things more differently. I've noticed that the patriarchal society is present in most cultures. It is learned at such a young age that people do not realize they have conformed to society's way of thinking. I am even a subject of this. For instance, one day I heard a man beat up a woman and I gasped stating that that's horrible that a man specifically would do such a thing. Then, my friend told me that if we wanted gender equality, we must start thinking that maybe the woman provoked the man. We cannot act in such a way because of a subject's gender, but given the fact that it was a violent act instead. It then dawned to me that I'm a victim of the gender inequality, and that I was taught this at such a young age that it has become natural to me. Now, however, people are becoming increasingly aware like bell hooks and myself, might I add. Now women are able to receive a proper education, provide for themselves, and not have to be dependent on men. They acquired a more self-reliant nature. We  [women] cannot be a subject of the "male gaze" and how men perceive women. We must be what Gandhi states, "the change you wish to see in the world." This way we will slowly but surely change people's perceptions of women and gain the independence we deserve.

Works Cited

Berger, J. (1973). Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.

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