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Male Gaze in the Media - Coggle Diagram
Male Gaze in the Media
The bible "Unto the woman god said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee."
I feel as though this biblical quote has been used many times both directly and indirectly to justify women's suffering. Like the quote says because supposedly Eve ate the apple and therefore damned everyone to "sin" so therefore women are bad and always the problem. This is one biblical quote that will never get me to say I am a Christian
Biology is another thing that has been used often directly to justify women's suffering; the idea that women shouldn't complain about our periods even though we have no control over it; the idea that women are "made" to have children and therefore not only have a biological duty to create kids, but must also enjoy everything that pregnancy and childbearing bring
"the woman is blamed and is punished by being made subservient to man. In relation to the woman, the man becomes an agent of God." (berger, pg. 50) This simple idea is why patriarchy and misogyny have literally been around since the dawn of time, as well as enforced and encouraged by other straight white men.
"men act and women appear. men look at women. women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the relations between men and women but also the relation to women themselves."
The male gaze is harmful to women for multiple reasons; one it teaches women to constantly feel, think and act as if a male is watching them. A male whose approval we need and whom will undoubtedly judge us in some form or fashion. and two it teaches women that they need this male acceptance. It teaches women that to be unwanted by males is the worst thing a woman can be. This fuels hatred and jealosy towards other women.
The surveyed female
"in the category of European oil painting women were the principal, ever-recurring subject. That category is the nude." "in them all remains the implication that the subject (a woman) is aware of being seen by a spectator"
"The moralizing, however, was mostly hypocritical. You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and call it vanity." This theme is so important to the male gaze: not only are women pressured to constantly look good, look sexy for the inevitable male watching, in the same exact breathe they are shamed for participating in these gestures
Aside from the fact that many women are brainwashed into shaving, dressing feminine and putting makeup because they think it equates their worth; some women just enjoy doing these things. They get shamed for these actions, claiming that it's all to impress men. Even little girls get told this when they may not even be thinking about men or boys.
Women aren't allowed to rest it seems like; women are put under this spectacle to perform in all areas - at work women are expected to dress "appropriately" ( which i guess is professional but not sexy or else you lose your respect) - at home women are expected to take on all the duties and are shamed for not doing so (making them less of a woman if they choose not to have kids, or even not to cook or clean) - in school it seems that women get shamed more often for behavior and not knowing things than their male counterparts (boys will be boys)
What are women for?
I like to go back to one of the early texts we read where the author attemped to define a woman. And the funny thing is that I have herd "what are women for" so many times it's not even a joke anymore. It really forced me to change how I viewed my own life.
Biology, once again, many people tend to dehumanize women in the simplest fashion; by demeaning them to their body parts which is inherantly sexual. Going back to the transformers scene with megan fox; that is one handy example but I cannot count the amount of times I have seen women characters portrayed this way. In media; if you are not a beautiful woman you may be a woman, just not one worthy of male attention or sex.
It makes me laugh when people try to describe women using the terms '"boobs" "vagina" or "uterus". Upon becoming more involved in the LGBTQ community and learning a lot about gender; many of the stereotypes we place in our everyday lives are not based on these body part analysis. This is simply used an excuse to dehumanize women: that a woman's only purpose is to have children. Then I learned that about 2% of the world is born intersex. Transgender women are women because woman hood does not depend on these definitions of body parts.
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