The Male Gaze and Patriarchy by Zou Xindi

With the development of modern society, the cognition of the social difference between male and female is moving forward as well. However, through the ages, females are always standing the point which is being observed, priced and judged. At the same time, the one who survey females always be males, and this kind of situation has a relationship with a kind of traditional and influential system-patriarchy. This essay will focus on the interpretation of male gaze and patriarchy.

 As what the author, John Berger, writes in his article, the male gaze is described the way males survey and treat females is subjective, shallow and sexual, and this kind of way always been expressed on art, no matter in paintings or sculptures. At the beginning of the article, the author writes, “One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women...Thus she turns herself into an object-and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.” (Page 47) From these sentences, we can know that men always in a dominant position when they face females. When the author uses words “act” and “appear”, he means that most of the time, the presence of male is initiative, but the presence of female is passive and purposive. In other words, because the difference in social status between males and females, males always be superior no matter in which aspect, so males are used to use their masculine way to survey females. More importantly, this kind of way is subjective and unfair because it puts sexual elements on evaluation. This means that they treat females as treat an object. This is how can we understand male gaze from this article. At the same time, this manifestation of this way is on art, and it is popular in many artistic expressions.

Vanity by Memling 1436-1494
The naked women are not only an art object but also the representative of man gaze

  The reasons why male gaze can become popular in arts is diversity, and the root is the awareness of the differences between males and females, and the difference is physical and social. As the author writes when she describes the painting, Vanity, “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure.” (Page 51) After reading these sentences we can know that the way men survey women are sexual. Especially when the author uses words like “enjoy” and “pleasure”, this means that in males’ aspect, the naked women are enjoyable objects. Therefore, naked women are common in western arts and it reflects the subjective and heterosexual way that men use to treat women, which means male gaze. Besides, the popularity of male gaze comes from the difference in social status. As we all know, no matter in western or eastern country, traditional or modern society, males always superior to females in social status. For example, the writer writes, “…how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated.” (Page 46) The high social status of man makes them dominate the realm of art, and the female artists never are the mainstream. At the same time, in most instances, females always be influenced or controlled by males. This means that in the realm of art which is consisted of males, the only few female artists are also be influenced by a male presence. In this way, the male gaze is pervasive in art and in popular culture.

Patriarchy represents a kind of system that males govern all the things in a crowd.
Webtoon, Author Unknown 

  Except for male gaze, the other word which is always been talked about is patriarchy. So, what’s patriarchy? As described by Bell Hooks in her article, “Understanding Patriarchy”, she writes, “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 that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.” (Page 18) From this sentence, we can define patriarchy as a kind of system that males, no matter father or brother, take charge of the whole members and responsibilities. This structure can be understood in our daily life. For example, in my own family, grandfather is the first one who can eat the meat in the big festival, and females, like my grandmother and my mother can’t eat until males begin to eat. Besides, male members always are responsible for problems and big responsibilities. For example, in traditional Chinese society, if couples want to get married, males must be the one who must buy house, car, and assume the cost to raise a kid. Dominating inherently and taking responsibilities forwardly, this is what Bell Hooks talks about patriarchy.
  These two articles changed my understanding of arts when talks about sexual relations, and more importantly, I find my own identity in these structures. Before I learn male gaze and patriarchy, paintings which have naked women are just some beautiful stuff. However, I know any forms of arts contain human being’s perspective and understanding. Moreover, I gradually realized that many females’ actions are influenced by males’ opinion, and this reflects the different social status between males and females. In this way, in this kind of structure, females must be independent of the male gaze and work harder cast off the chains that males put on us. 

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.
  Other Sources
  The source of Vanity by Memling 
  https://www.wikiart.org/en/hans-memling/vanity-central-panel-from-the-triptych-of-earthly-vanity-and-divine-salvation
  The source of the webtoon
  https://areyouafeminist.weebly.com/the-patriarchy.html