As a result of the system of patriarchy, which is still very
much in place, the idea that men- predominantly white men- are superior than
women, is an idea that has been internalized by not only men, but also by
women. With media, pop culture, art, and even society being saturated in these
ideas of male supremacy and women as the “other,” women become less than human,
and become objects for men to “gaze” at. As such, women are judged on their
appearance, which makes them focus their lives on their appearance, and all of
it is for men to give them approval that they are worth at least something in
society. As Berger writes, “She [woman] has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she
appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial
importance for what is normally thought of as success of her life…Men survey
women before treating them. Consequently, how a woman appears to a man can
determine how she will be treated (pg. 46).”
The male gaze is a constant visual critique from men that
molds how not only they view/want to view women, but also how women view
themselves. Through the male gaze, women are taught to look a certain way, or
appear a certain way in order to be accepted into society by those who are in power:
men. By gaining this approval, a woman has the chance to move up in society
because she is forming herself into what the white, heterosexual man wants to
see. It is a false sense of power set up by the same structure that is gazing
upon her, putting blame on her even though they (white, heterosexual men) are
the ones who are selling this image of what they want to see, to her. This then
goes into the issue of the male gaze in art and popular culture.
By making the male gaze pervasive in art and popular
culture, men are creating images for themselves to continually enjoy, as well
as putting out images that will influence young men/women and continue a cycle
of portraying a woman how a man wants, not how she wants. In doing this, patriarchy
can stay in control of making sure that women look a certain way and remain
under patriarchy’s power. If women consume this image and emulate it, they
become the objects that patriarchy want them to be, and as such, these women
unknowingly become puppets in a system of oppression.
On the other side of this, however, is the oppositional gaze
where a woman can look at an image of another woman and be able to critically
analyze that image. When speaking of the oppositional gaze concerning black
people, Bell Hooks writes, “Spaces of agency exist for black people, wherein we
can both interrogate the gaze of the Other but also look back, and at one
another, naming what we see. The “gaze” has been and is a site of resistance
for colonized black people globally…In resistance struggle, the power of the
dominated to assert agency by claiming and cultivating “awareness” politicizes “looking
relations- one learns to look a certain way in order to resist (pg. 116).” This
passage can also be used when speaking of only women. By looking at the cover
of a mainstream magazine with a female celebrity on it- which is usually a
tall, thin white woman in a bikini, or a dress- a woman can take that image and
analyze that that’s what is being sold as what is deemed socially acceptable
for a woman to be; thin, light-skinned and tall. Taking that into
consideration, that same woman looking at the cover can look at her own image
and see if she is trying to emulate that celebrity, or if she is challenging
what mainstream society (run by patriarchy) wants her to be.
In terms of the patriarchal structure and the male gaze that
comes about in within not only still images, but moving images as well, I
learned at a very young age from popular culture (as well as my male family
members) that the “proper” way a woman was supposed to dress was to wear
clothing that revealed certain body parts. Not only that, but the most fitting
way to be a “woman” was to be thin. I saw this fabricated idea on magazine
covers, in movies, tv shows, and even pornography. I only really came to fully understand
this entire construction in my first semester at Rutgers when I took a feminist
theory course that was primarily for juniors and seniors. It made me realize
that the images of women in the media and in art were nothing more than
fantasies created by men for men that had no place in reality. Of course, I
also learned that those images were also trying to strongly hold gender in
place, and as the amazing Judith Butler has said, ‘gender is nothing more than
a performance.’ To challenge patriarchy’s image, I embrace my skin color, as
well as my curves. Apart from that, although I am cisgender, I would consider
myself gender fluid, and I am goth, which completely fights against everything
mainstream.
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