Anna Mendieta/Patriarchy/Gaze

The Gazed Silhouette

Ways of seeing:

“A woman must continuously watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself”
This quote accurately depicts how women are always under this perception microscope, whether it's society judging them or their own self-image. It's like this endless loop of pressure to fit into certain molds and expectations. It also reflects the societal pressures and expectations that often compel women to be conscious of how they are perceived, both by themselves and others. This constant pressure is exhausting.

“Men act. Women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at”
This quote brutally lays out the gender inequality we're dealing with. While men get to take center stage, women are stuck in this never-ending loop of being judged and self-judging. While the man is perpetually the observer, the woman is fated to always be the observed, always the target of criticism.

Understanding Patriarchy:

“At church they had learned that God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man. They were taught that God was male. These teachings were reinforced in every institution they encountered schools, courthouses, clubs, sports arenas, as well as churches. Embracing patriarchal thinking, like everyone else around them, they taught it to their children because it seemed like a "natural" way to organize life.”
This quote resonated with me in the sense that I always had an issue with how patriarchy has taken over the majority of religions. I find it overwhelmingly unfair how many religions were distorted to fit the world for man. How can something so ancient and sacred be manipulated into a religious weapon against women? The very same religion that once treated both individuals equally in the eyes of God, was changed to for the patriarchal agenda.

“To indoctrinate boys with the rules of patriarchy, we force them to feel pain and deny their feelings”
This quote reflects how men are also harmed by the patriarchy. Many men have the misconception that patriarchy is not bad, and does not need to be changed. However, they do not realize that many of their own anxieties come from the patriarchal standards of men not “being dramatic/fragile” which causes them to bottle up and struggle with their emotions.

The Oppositional Gaze:

“The child who has learned so well to look the other way when necessary. Yet, when punished, the child is told by parents, "Look at me when I talk to you.' "Only, the child is afraid to look. Afraid to look, but fascinated by the gaze. There is power in looking.”
This quote explains how important it is to not traumatize a child with the gaze. But it goes much further than that. The gaze is part of the identity. It is part of having power, and a conflicted relationship with the gaze might result in anxiety and a disrupted sense of self. I remember I used to look up to people when I talked while I was younger, but as I grew older I stopped making eye contact as often because I did not want to be perceived.

“When I asked a black woman in her twenties, an obsessive moviegoer, why she thought we had not written about black female spectatorship, she commented: "We are afraid to talk about ourselves as spectators because we have been so abused by 'the gaze'." An aspect of that abuse was the imposition of the assumption that black female-looking relations were not important enough to theorize.”
This quote uncovers a big issue in the world of movies and culture. It shows how black women hesitate to speak up about their experiences as movie buffs because they've been treated poorly by what's often known as "the gaze." This gaze usually comes from a white perspective and has historically marginalized and objectified people of color.

Female Gaze: Art that Looks at What Women See 

“The female artists’ gaze is shaped by their lived experiences, which are different for women and men.”

Ana Mendieta: Artist Who Pushed Boundaries

"As an immigrant, Mendieta felt a disconnect in the United States. The trauma of being uprooted from her Cuban homeland as a girl would leave her with questions about her identity and make her more conscious of being a woman of color." 

Concepts:

• The Male Gaze is the portrayal of women in visual media, like movies and ads, from a heterosexual male point of view.
• The Female Gaze is a concept that challenges the dominant male perspective. It critiques how women are traditionally represented in cinema, aiming to provide a different viewpoint. The Female Gaze strives to depict women as active individuals with their own thoughts and feelings, rather than simply objects of male attraction. It spotlights female outlooks, experiences, and desires, pushing back against the objectification and sexualization of women in visual media.
• The Oppositional Gaze is a way of looking that involves political defiance and resistance against the suppression of a black person's right to look.