The Burdens of Not Having and Having a Penis

Michelle Wong

Media 384

The Burdens of Not Having and Having a Penis

            Media makes sure that the disadvantages of not having or having a penis is put in our face everyday, with the intention of us not thinking too much about it. We enjoy cinemas and media so much, but we tend to question it so little. That is why an industry was created for the male gaze, that shapes how we are to present ourselves to society.

            Male gaze is essentially an idea of fabricating women to male pleasure. We started seeing this trend in European oil paintings that illustrated women in sexual positions, for the sake of her observer. Berger says in “Ways of Seeing”, “And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed.” (Berger, 46) While knowing the presence of her observer, she also observes herself through her observer. Women in oil paintings are often looking at mirrors, having a sense of self-awareness, and that someone is watching her, therefore she has to be in a pleasant position to be looked at. An oil painting documenting Adam and Eve’s story illustrates another disadvantage of not having a penis. While Adam and Eve both committed a sin, Eve is subjected to be own by him, and Adam “becomes the agent of God.”(Berger, 48) This becomes one of the explanations why women are property belonging to men.

Woman painted sitting in a position being ready to men to possess her.

            Being possessed by men allowed male gaze to foster. Possessing someone gives one power, and through the gaze, men gain power. In possessing them, we are also oppressing women and in “Why Men Oppress Women”, Steve Taylor says, “The oppression of women stems largely in men’s desire for power and control.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201208/why-men-oppress-women  In “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Malvey dissects one of Freud’s philosophy, scopophilia. She says, “…he associated scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze.” (Malvey 835) This idea that women are mysterious objects, by looking at them, sexualizing them, and having thoughts of sexual encounters with them demystifies them, and tame them. She also included a quote from Budd Boetticher, “What counts is what the heroine provokes…who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance.”(Malvey, 837) Female characters are heroines for making the hero take action; so while he does, she is just present. The hero is not saving the world from a zombie apocalypse though, he is simply “saving” her by inserting his penis into her, because she “needs” since she is castrated.

            Besides film, video games satisfy the male gaze. There is a lack of female characters in games. But another problem is the purpose of female characters’ existence. Their existence is for the intention of pleasing male gamers, with their unrealistic body configuration. Their tremendous boobs and long thin legs cannot be condemned in a short skirt and revealing top, and their outfit is not functional for fighting, but this is all for the sake of male visual pleasure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU5laE9ZCdc

            Critics always points out how male gaze affects women, but fails to address the issues for black women. People of color were not widely represented in media, and when they were, they’d be subjects of amusement and jokes. For example, Andy ‘N’ Amos, starring two colored gullible men. The under representation is the effect of oppression to gaze.  Gaze is a power, and people of colored were denied that. In response to this, Bell Hooks coined the term, Oppositional Gaze. She said, “It was the oppositional black gaze that responded to these looking relations…” (Hooks, 117). In “Oppositional Gaze” Bell Hooks also mention how black women were being overly sexualized. While white women were subjects to be desired by men, black women were looked down upon. Therefore, many black women refrained from Hollywood and cinemas in general.

Poor representation of people of color in media. White painted black face actors as two gullible characters.

            We should consider the system of patriarchy to be one of the causes of these troubling media illustrations. Even men, the ones with penises are being affected. Patriarchy “…is assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation.”(Hooks, 17) In “Understanding Patriarchy” Bell Hook discusses the limits society puts on gender. While “it was his role to be served; to provide; to be strong; to think…” it was her “…role to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking…” (Hooks, 18) Then a power dynamic is created where men owns women. She also talks about how boys are taught to be tough and emotionless, while girls are to be subtle and emotional. Men are supposed to be macho, to live up to the examples of men shown on T.V. This is putting restrictions on society, and not allowing individuals present themselves as their own self.

            I am affected by the system of patriarchy in a sense that I shouldn’t be too dominant, or assertive, and ambitious. I unknowingly put myself in a position where I design myself to cater to men, as much as I’d hate to admit. This is because I am a woman without a penis. The penis dictates which side of the spectrum an individual is on, and neither side is the most ideal place to be in.

Works Cited

Berger, John. "Ways of Seeing." Journal of Aesthetic Education 8.4 (1974): 46-48.

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Visual and Other Pleasures (1989): 835-37.

Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Atria Books, 2004: 17-18.

Hooks, Bell. In Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992: 117