The Male Gaze and Patriarchy

If You Stay Innocent like a 4-Year-old Baby,
Then You Will Stay Timelessly Sexy

But You Have To Channel Your Inner Fabio

The male gaze according to John Berger was an era when men used women as the object of attraction. Women were taught to always look at their beauty, they were many times always portrayed with a mirror in their hands looking at themselves. The author states, "One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." (Berger 47) In this quote Berger is illustrating the purpose of being a women. The author implies that women were not born to be intellectual and become professionals, they were born to be looked at. By having this idea the author is implying that society has devalued women in all perspective. He is saying that the value of being a women is to be looked at. In this perspective this is why men would paint these nude women, to emphasize their beauty. In the majority of these painting the women would always be looking out of the painting at their spectator. This technique evolved from the era of the male gaze, but it is also used in today's advertisements. In the image of the a women holding a teddy bear the viewer can see how she is looking outside of the image to try to engage with the viewer so that they can buy the fragrance she is advertising. Instead of looking at the teddy bear she is holding she is trying to engage with "you" the viewer. She was told by the photographer that she needed to look cute and desirable, not only that, but she also needed to look interesting. This idea of interesting is being portrayed in the image of the lady that is partially dressed with a violin in her hand and being offered a cigarette. In this image she is not looking at the individual who is offering her the cigarette she is, in a way, looking at "you". The terminology "you" refers to the spectator. Male artists during the 1970's painted and photographed women to emphasize their beauty as I mentioned above. John Berger implies the idea is that women do what men want, it is like they do not have a say in anything. During the male gaze women were taught that beauty was their key to success.  It was like their appearance determined the treatment. In today's society this particular attitude is very persuasive to consumer because it catches their attention so that they can buy the product that is being advertised. This type of technique can also catch a readers attention so that they can read the article that follows. In the example of the image of the women holding the violin readers would not  engage with the article by reading the plain title, the women becomes the motivation. This makes the male figure want to read the article and have the desire to buy the cosmetics for their wives. These are a small portion of the many arts that were used to persuade readers and consumers to engage with the social world. 

Anna Kutukova's

Patriarchy was when the definition of the sex roles were definite. Girls were suppose to play with dolls and help their mothers around the house and boys were suppose to be the tough ones in the house. Men were the superior one and women were the ones that followed orders and enforce the rules that were made by their husbands in their household. The author Bell Hooks defines patriarchy in a different manner. Hooks definition of patriarchy is the following, "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 the dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence." (18)  The social system in which boys will be boys and girls would be girls. Starting from a very early age females were taught the ideals of living in a patriarchy household. There father would always be the one to enforce the rules in rigorous ways. Bell Hooks illustrates a moment of her childhood where her father beat her with a board that he had taken from the door way because she wanted to play with her brothers marvel and her father told her that she was not allowed to play those games and instead of just settling and leaving, she confronted her father and told him that she wanted to play, her father got angry and used violence to make her understand (Hooks 20). This incident demonstrate how was also used to enforce the rule. In this illustration we see that not even Bell Hooks mother could have done anything to stop her father from beating her. In these patriarchal household the female figure were the ones to enforce the rules and care for their family. They were in charge of the domestic part of the equation. In most cases these types of situations happen in the majority of household in our society. For instance in my household my father is the one to make the rule. Every time that me and my brother did something wrong my mom would always say "wait until your father comes home" to scare us so that we would stop what we were doing. Once our father came home we would behave like angels. In our household my father was the figure of respect. 

Letty Coltin Pogrebin: Oppression of Women

In both Patriarchy and the male gaze women were objectified. They had no say in their own society, they were only there to follow men's orders. Overtime it became a tradition to misidentify women, to use them as sexual objects. During the male gaze women were taught to look at themselves and admire their true beauty. During patriarchy the household followed male orders, women were only there to enforce their orders. It was merely like they were hidden from their own society. Which led to the rise of feminism.




-Arleni Liriano



Work 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.