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.
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| 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.
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| 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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