Thursday, February 1, 2018

Male Gaze and Patriarchy: The Rampant Forces

As two interrelated concepts, the male gaze and patriarchy have been shaping our society in a rampant pace. What do we mean when we are talking about male gaze and patriarchy? The male gaze literally means the act of depicting artworks in the perspective of men, while patriarchy represents a specific social order in which men own the dominance over women. However, these two concepts are no longer restricted exclusively in the field of art. The boost of social media gives rise to the penetration of the male gaze and patriarchal concepts into every aspect of our daily life, and we are frequently exposed to controversial occasions and discussions relating to patriarchy as a consequence. The philosophy behind male gaze and patriarchy is what feminists have been fighting against relentlessly, but unfortunately its presence never fades, and keeps affecting our ways of thinking.

The male gaze leads to the objectification of women, which is a pervasive social illness. By definition, the objectification of women refers to the act of viewing women primarily as an object for sexual desire, rather than viewing them as individuals with distinct personalities. The male gaze is the product of patriarchy, since it reflects men’s dominance. As illustrated by John Berger in “Ways of Seeing”, the male gaze pushes women to view and adjust themselves in the perspective of men. John Berger clarified the difference between men and women in his article as he illustrated the male gaze. As Berger stated, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of women in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.” (47, Berger, “Ways of Seeing”) Although here Berger did not write the word “objectification” to support his illustration, but obviously it is what Berger wanted to present – we can get it from the word “sight” that Berger put in the quote. The presence of male gaze is the reason why women are turned into “sight”, rather than real persons. According to Berger, women’s self-consciousness was based on the perspective of men, which forced them to “survey” themselves continuously in order to check if they were in accordance with those men’s standards. Under the control of male gaze, women have no right to present for themselves, unfortunately, what they present or convey have to meet men’s criteria. Even when some women are brave enough to present their true personalities, they would still be ignored if those personal traits are not considered righteous according to men’s standards. The ground on which Berger mainly illustrated the male gaze was the field of art, however, the male gaze is so pervasive in our life that we can feel it in nearly every aspect of our real life.

Girls at 2009 Geneva Motor Show

The presence of car show girls (or models) perfectly explains what male gaze looks like in modern life. By definition, a car show girl is “a female who’s hired to represent an auto manufacturer in an auto show. These models are extremely attractive and can speak intelligently about the make and model of automobile she is representing”, but I think what people really care about is their attractiveness. For the intention of grabbing potential customers, these show girls must be good at attracting people’s attention and engaging them well. As a consequence, they choose to use their sexual attractiveness as the tool for grabbing attention, and these “tools” sometimes could become the most popular factor in auto shows. Usually, the higher rank the automobile company has, the more attractive models there will be on the show. Comparing these models with those paintings Berger listed in his article, you may find the similarities between the models and the female characters. These models also try to make sure they apply to men’s definition of “attractive” to attract customers, which obviously are mainly male. The models’ sexy costumes, postures, facial expressions and body language are all designed and crafted for grabbing male customers’ eyes. 

Astonishing Fact about Men Being Sexually Assaulted

If the male gaze is a symptom, then patriarchy must be the root problem. According to Bell Hooks, patriarchy begins to work at a very early stage in our lives, where people are told what their gender role is, and they grow up trying to fulfill that role at most. I think there is one specific viewpoint that Hooks elaborated that is extremely valuable in a social sense, since it is usually neglected by most people. This topic is that patriarchy can also harm men. As Hooks stated in her article, “Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women’s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to their own experiences.” (17, Hooks, “Understanding Patriarchy”) It is commonsense that patriarchy denotes men with primary dominance over everything else, which makes people tend to take it for granted that men could never be the victims of patriarchy. The over-dominance that patriarchy gives men sometimes conveys a sense of morbid and unnecessary pressure, which is automatically attached to men. I think men being sexually assaulted is a great topic to support Hook’s statement and clarify how patriarchy could harm men as well. Though statistics have already shown that men make up anywhere from 10 to 38 percent of sexual assault victims, a number of men are still unwilling to face this problem. In my daily life, when I and my friends read or watched the news about men being sexually assaulted, there would always be someone laughing at it or making jokes about it. According to the masculinity that patriarchy had attached to men, being sexually assaulted is extremely shameful for men, since it derails men from fulfilling their gender roles, which also impedes men’s facing the issue bravely and recovering. 

Sources and links:
1. John Berger, “Ways of Seeing”; a Book Made by John Berger, 1972
2. Bell Hooks, “Understanding Patriarchy”; The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and love, 2005
   

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