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The Gaze: How Looking is The Root of some Evil

Terry Taylor
April 27, 2015
Dr. Anzicek
Comm 4120
Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can
change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas, wise
words from Edward de Bono, the man who originated the idea of lateral thinking. These words
from Bono, who was born in 1933, can ring true today, and throughout time. He is saying that if
one can change their perception, your emotions towards things can change, and finally you can
spark up new ideas from this as well. When trying to critique the idea of the Male Gaze, it is the
idea of perception that is essential to the whole discussion. Throughout this paper the idea of
perception should be consistent in your mind, stimulating your thoughts in a direction wondering
whose perception am I actually looking through, or even wonder if this is your own perception.
This idea of perception is detrimental to all members of society, crippling our emotions and ideas
because it compels us to only explore one possibility.
The media dictates a lot of things for us in America. It tells us who is popular, who is
attractive, what Kanye West is doing now, and everything else in between. The media can be
seen as a blessing and a curse by many people, and should be seen as both. The media does do it
job, but sometimes to a fault. When analyzing the male gaze this focus will be seen through the
lens of a camera, in this case a movie camera. This is where we can clearly see the idea of male
gaze and I think it is the easiest way to view this. In movies, we tend to see the camera looking
through a male eye. This eye is usually looking at what the media sees as things that males
should like, women, women, cars, and more women. And it is not just the display of women, but
them in a sexualized and sometimes hyper sexualized manner that is harmful to society.

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Huffington Post writer Michaela Pommells explains this in an interesting and clear manner. She
goes on to state Men have the power to be sought-after regardless of their physical appearance
whereas women must meet unrealistic standards to make the cut, so to speak. A women's power
rests in her ability to capture male attention and do whatever possible to hold that attention. They
learn to be ready for the male gaze at all times and that their value rests in their ability to be
sexually attractive. Not only is that self-defeating, but it can even perpetuate divisive female
relationships (Pommells, 2013).
With Pommells words, the idea of perception comes into play. She is saying that the
perception of women is to always expect and be ready for the male gaze because society is
telling them their power is in their beauty. Not in their brain, not in their physical or mental
abilities, not in any skills nor degrees they posses, but their beauty above all. This perception is
something that is very detrimental to us. This is shifting our emotions towards women and the
emotions that women have about themselves, because all of this pressure on one to produce
beauty is very hard to manage and keep up with, and is also unrealistic. Then changing our ideas
about women because we feel their power lies in their beauty, unlike for men where the
appearance doesnt matter to the same extent. We have been conditioned that the idea of a good
or suitable women is dependent solely on her beauty. So with this we can see that Pommells
words fall with Bonos quote. Although different in nature, we can see how Pommells words are
applicable in this idea. These words can be applied directly through the camera, and my next
example is still from the camera, but now in a different context for mature adults only. Yes I am
talking about the pornography industry.
In our gender and communication we briefly talked about the pornography industry and
how it effects people who watch it. Some of the ideas that were expressed in class were that this
industry makes things that a woman may not enjoy sexually seem like it is fun and pleasurable,

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and they have to maintain this appeal of pleasure throughout the duration of the film.
Obviously being very sexualized, one who is old enough for this (legally by state) may find out
that the actions on screen do not play out in real life as they do, just like in most television and
movies. We discussed that sex usually doesnt resemble how it does in the pornography industry
because majority of these people are actors, and majority of this is scripted. Knowing these
things can cause one to forget or get the wrong idea about how sex is. This is problematic for
anyone watching, primarily a younger audience who shouldnt be watching this anyway. Many
of the websites require you to be 18 or older, but bypassing this is fairly easy. This allows kids,
teens, etc. to be able to access these things way before they may even have the ability to have sex
or reproduce for that matter.
An article was written by a cast of writers titled Male Gaze, Pornography and the
Fetishised Female. The idea of this article was trying to convey is better said in their terms;
Using psychoanalysis to read Masterpieces reveals that pornography framed within a masculine
gaze and mens acting-out of objectification or violence towards women are manifestations of
more deeply rooted structures - mens fantasies, fears, and anger associated with women at both
individual and societal levels (Yahya et. al, 25). This statement that summarizes the article is
consistent with the things that I have discussed in my paper. The violence aspect of watching
these videos are deeply rooted in our society, and although this particular statement didnt touch
upon it, this effects the youth as well. When the youth see this it can stick with them longer
because they are younger, and this is part of the reason that this is rooted so deep. The article
goes on to say The man is constructed literally as the site of an excessive and dangerous desire,
a desire that mobilizes the sadistic aspect of the narrative into the actual act of violence. The film
operates within a fetishistic society which seeks to articulate and reinforce the respective
positions of women and men, and the scene may be read as indicative of the playwrights

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insistence that the act of looking is not neutral; the look is loaded with power, with desire, with
anxiety or fear, and with the need to escape the threat of castration (Yahya et. al, 32). This
statement shows that the ideas from this article are consistent with the thoughts from Pommells;
the emotional factor is very important, power is very important, and the idea of reinforcing the
traditional positions of women and men. All these ideas have been very consistent, and in the
next section we will see how these ideas are consistent in the lifestyle that me and my classmates
live in, which is college. This is where a lot of these things come to play and are intensified here.
Also in our gender and communication class we discussed how being in college
exacerbated many of the situations that we brought up. We receive these ideas from the media
through various forms, more importantly movie and television, then these things start to play out
in real life. We have talked about how rape and sexual assault is more prevalent on a college
campus, along with many other things. But the male gaze is also very prevalent on college
campuses and also in general. Sarah J. Gervais, Arianne M. Holland & Michael D. Dodd wrote
an article titled My Eyes Are Up Here: The Nature of the Objectifying Gaze Toward Women.
What they explained in this article was the work they have done using eye tracking technology
on college students to show how the male gaze was effecting these students and being utilized.
The study used 65 students from Midwestern University, 29 women and 36 men. We utilized a
3 (Body part: face, chest, and waist) X 2 (Focus: appearance or personality) X 3 (Ideal body
shape: high, average, and low) X 2 (Participant gender: men or women) mixed model design
(Gervais et. al, 560). Now knowing who was tested and what scale was used, let us look at what
they have concluded. They go on to state Regarding dwell time, participants gazed at womens
faces for shorter durations and chests and waists for longer durations when they were asked to
objectify the women by evaluating their appearance (vs. personality, consistent with Hypothesis
1a) and this effect was exacerbated for women with bodies that fit cultural ideals of beauty (i.e.,

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hourglass shaped women, consistent with Hypothesis 1b) (Gervais et. al, 565). With this
information from their select sample size we can see that people focused less on the face on more
on the sexual parts of a woman.
This idea is consistent with what we see and can figure in real life, and also through the
lens of a camera. These cameras are less focused on the face, but look at the chest, butt, and other
body parts of a woman where focusing on her. This is also seen in advertising a lot, something
that we talked about in class. Many occasions women didnt get their face in the ads, it would
just be fragments of them. While men got their whole bodies into the frame. From class we
realized that this dehumanizes women making it easier for people to think that they are objects
instead of people. So we can see how this article plays into our previous articles, all of these
ideas come together when discussing the male gaze, and it is very important to consider them all.
The last idea I want to explore is sports, another idea that we discussed in class. We have talked
about how women is sports are primarily focused on because of their appearance, and not their
skill level. It is more centered towards what they look like than if they can play, while men it is
really all about their skill level them maybe looks come into play, but this isnt as significant as
with women.
As discussed in class, the idea that women who play sports must also be attractive is
asinine. This idea is very detrimental to society because we do not look at these women for their
skill level; we are still fixated on their beauty. Rather for mens sports we do not look at their
appearance, but we look at their skill level. Take in point to examples of LeBron James and
Maria Sharapova. So many people across the world know LeBron as one of or the best player in
the NBA. He is widely known for his supreme skill level, his business savvy, and his looks have
never been questioned to my knowledge. However Maria Sharapova it is all about her looks on
the tennis court, in advertisements, in anything. Even though at one point she was ranked the best

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tennis player in the world, the overarching topic about her was that she was hot. This is a clear
example of the male gaze. This gaze is directed at women to solely focus on their beauty,
although they may have many other skills and attributes to bring to the table. The discourse of
the male gaze: a critical analysis of the feature section 'The beauty of sport' in SA Sports
Illustrated, an article written by Mandie Brandt and Adelia Carstens (2005) focuses on the idea
that words and pictures personify female stereotypes and making these women sex objects in
order to be beautiful for men. They go on to state in the discussion of their findings According
to this exposition, the visual and verbal 'vocabulary' used to describe sportswomen cluster within
the semantic fields of weight/feminine physical beauty, sex/romance and temperament/emotional
predisposition. Professionalism, dedication, hard work, muscular and emotional strength (which
must have been ingredients in achieving success) are backgrounded (Brandt et. al, 2005). So
from this research we can see that these findings are very similar with the ideas that have been
brought forth. These findings are very similar to the findings from the previous articles
discussed. These findings are again, detrimental to those partaking in this and also harmful to
those being exposed to these ideas.
In conclusion, the idea of the male gaze needs to be completely thrown out. It is harming
women because they are put up to these unrealistic standards of beauty, while being good at
something or being a professional does not matter. This is hurting those who do exhibit things in
their field to show they are the best, and this is also hurting women who are perceived as
beautiful or attractive because they may have gotten a pass on something due to this. Not only is
it harmful to women, but it is harmful to men. The male gaze can lead to sexually objectifying
women, not focusing on their skill or character but focusing on their looks, and also in some
cases it can be correlated to violent behaviors. Lastly it is harmful to the youth; the ones who are
more easily influenced by these things presented from the media. It is reaching them at such a

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young age that it can be a long term problem for them, being very harmful for them. If this idea
of male gaze is removed and put into a gaze that equally represents everyone, men and women,
and does not sexually objectify people, this would be very beneficial to society. Hopefully
critically thinking about this idea by reading this paper you will now think how, and when will
this male gaze be abolished.

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Works Cited
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Pommells, Michaela. "Rethinking the Male Gaze." The Huffington Post.
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Shih, Irene. "The Male Gaze: The Problem Is That Your Preference Matters At All." What Shih
Said. N.p., 01 July 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.