Male Gaze and Patriarchy

John Berger mentions the male gaze and he describes it as the way men view the female body as just a body and nothing more, so a woman is not her own person, but rather just flesh to please the eyes of men. The male gaze gives the right to men to objectify women and look at them as sexual pleasures rather than their own identities.  He supports this argument through a couple of paintings such as Susanna and the Elders which perfectly depicts the idea of the male gaze. But Berger’s analysis of the male gaze did not fade away. We still see this issue on daily basis through TV commercials, movies, TV shows, billboards, and much more. The male Gaze has become this issue that even though we know it exists, we still somehow give in to it and very few attempt to fight it. But the male gaze is not the only issue we are facing, matter of fact, the second issue goes hand in hand with the male gaze. This issue supports, and conspires with the male gaze. It justifies it and gives it the right for it to even exist in our society. It's the backbone of the male gaze: it’s patriarchy.

Tintoretto- Susanna and the Elders 1555

Patriarchy is what influences the idea of the male gaze and makes it okay for men and women to give in to it in our society. We see many posters and commercials and billboards that sexualize the female body and the main purpose of it is to please the eyes of men, but at the same time it hurts the women who are being looked at because they then believe that this is okay as well. Patriarchy causes a woman “to survey everything she is and everything she does, because how she appears to others – and particularly how she appears to men – is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life.” This argument is also supported by social activist Bell Hooks. She explains that the idea of patriarchy hurts men almost more than it benefits them, but the issue is that “We are socialized into this system, females as well as males” (23). But what are some examples of patriarchy that lead to the support of the male gaze?

The movie Justice League is a good example that depicts both patriarchy, and the male gaze in one simple photo of all the main characters posing, First of all let us acknowledge the idea of the fact that she is the only woman in the picture. Second of all Why is everyone dressed up from head to toe, but she is the only one showing "flesh". Wont she get hurt in combat? Oh well, this pretty much supports the argument of how patriarchy is what influences the male gaze, and how women are simply looked at to please men.

Justice League Movie 2017




Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. British Broadcasting Corp., 2012.

Hooks, Bell. The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. Simon & Schuster, 2004.