Patriarchy and Male Gaze - Emily King

1960's Van Heusen Advertisement

Today we see major changes in society that pertain to how women are treated in the work place and in households. Although we still as a society have hung on to certain ideas that surround how women are viewed in society such as the male gaze and patriarchy. Patriarchy is a social system in which the most powerful, and usually the oldest male of the household is in charge and dominates and is the authoritative figure in the household. I don't believe patriarchy only pertains to the household, I believe it is even used in politics in the sense that the ideas behind patriarchy and how we think that a powerful man should be in charge of the state. Even though this is not the thought process for everyone the idea still lingers. The male gaze I would describe it as almost the inner critic inside women that concerns themselves with how they look to men and to other women based on their looks. Hinting to the statement that women care too much about what they look like, and pay too much attention to our appearance.

The photo to the right is a perfect example of patriarchy viewed in the late 1900's but this idea has also been around much earlier in time. This social system is very difficult to try and get rid of because it has been around for so long and not everyone is ready to throw away this social normality that feels so normal in everyday life. According to Bell Hook's book The Will to Change in chapter two she mainly describes the system of patriarchy, as well as how she grew up with patriarchy. When she was younger she tells us the story of how her father beat her for insisting that she play marbles with her brother. Then as she runs upstairs her mother consoles her, "In service the patriarchy her task was to reinforce that Dad had done the right thing by putting me in my place, by restoring the natural social order" (Hooks, 21). The fact that she was not allowed to play marbles because she is not a boy is a perfect example of patriarchy because it shows that only men can do certain things and that the world we live in today is a man’s world. Her mother consoling her and telling her that she told her that women can only do certain things is and cannot do the same things men and boys do is a way of establishing the patriarchy in the family. But also this shows that it is not only reinforced by men but by women as well. For some families patriarchy has been established and reinforced throughout time and it is hard for them to change their views, so they continue to bring patriarchy into their children and then their children carry the view on to their children. Patriarchy is also reinforced religiously, in the sense that the Bible reinforces the idea of man. “At church they had learned that God created man to rule the world and anything 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). The fact that even the Bible can be interpreted as an example of patriarchy shows how easy it is for our society to believe in and still use patriarchy today. Of course one can argue that the Bible can be interpreted differently depending on religion and just how one reads the Bible. The fact that the Bible can be interpreted as a patriarchal reading shows how easy it is for the idea of patriarchy to still be popular today.

Image of music video for "Come with me now" by The Kongos

The way I would describe the male gaze is the inner critic in a woman who is concerned of how they look to men. The image above is from the music video "Come with me now", performed and written by The Kongos. The song basically means that he needs to loose control and to just go out and have fun, and wanting a pretty woman by his side. So the photo is showing a beautiful woman applying makeup to get ready for the night. She is making sure she is up to standards not only with herself but with a male as well. Going into my previous statement that the male gaze has turned into an inner critic inside the female. This may be an interesting view point on the male gaze; we can agree that the start and basis of the male gaze has started off with how women are portrayed in film, television, and art. Many art projects that are of women are sexualized. After time this eventually has trained women to constantly think about their appearance, and how men and women will view them. Writer John Berger has tackled on the male gaze in chapter three of his book Ways of Seeing he says; “The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight” (Berger, 47). Women are well aware that men will look at women, and the women fear they are judged on their appearance so they are nervous of how men see them. Since women will care what they look like we have kept the male gaze theory present because we want to look good in photos. A great example is Instagram, some women care way too much how many likes they will get on a photo on Instagram or if their crush likes their photo because they want the confirmation that they are attractive. John Berger also says; “Men survey women before treating them” (Berger, 46). So women are away that they might be treated differently if men find them attractive or vise versa, which is what brings out the inner critic in women to care what we look like because for some women our main audience is male. This inner critic also applies to women wondering how women view them, whether we want to make other girls jealous, or we care as well what other women think of us.