The Female Gaze

Today in class I asked Professor A whether because of the lack of display of male bodies in a purely sexual way on screen, and in other media as well, women have been conditioned to look at women rather than at men. Whether the pure voyeuristic tendency of looking at the opposite sex exists in a lesser degree in women than in men. She disagreed and felt that it was just that we were given less opportunity to lech (to put it non-academically!) than men, though of course now this is changing, even back home in Bollywood (John Abraham – drool!)

Classmate X (male btw and German as well) said that all that is needed to arouse a man is to see a naked woman walk across the screen. Whereas women, he supposed, needed more – the character would perhaps have to be eloquent, display a sense of humour etc.

Classmate Y agreed and said that it is possible for young women to have a crush on say a character such as an aging professor (much to our Professor B’s amusement – the devil!) and that it isn’t just the physicality that is important.

Professor B also tended to disagree with us and agree with Professor A and described a four hour drive when his niece and her friends unashamedly discussed Hrithik Roshan’s biceps, abs and other body parts openly and expected him to contribute as well!

This made me look back and think about my own way of perceiving the male body. Till the age of about sixteen I don’t think I could ever perceive a male body as a body. The decision to do so, sparked by the way I saw western women on screen react to men and from articles in Cosmo, was a conscious one. I’m not sure if it could have been a latent natural instinct or something purely learned. I do know that it gives me a sense of power to see men as playthings. However, this is limited to men on screen, in print and strangers on the street. My innate sense of respect for the other person still does not permit me to perceive men I know in real life as just bodies.

Y feels that she cannot look at men purely sexually because she was socially conditioned to believe that that would be unfeminine. I suddenly remembered a guy pointing to the pix of semi-naked men that my roomies and I stuck on our door, saying “Yeh kya hai?” And he is someone whose room is covered with female pin-ups. Could this be true then? That some of us have been given the message that it is wrong to look at men sexually? Is it then a cultural thing, which is why Prof. A, who though a woman is German, feels differently? Honestly, how many Indian women turn around to check out a man’s butt? Or does Prof. A, being a feminist scholar, believe that women see men as sex toys in the same way that men see women because that is what she wants to believe?

I realized that I also have an unfair prejudice against muscled men – I automatically assume they’re dumb. Y agreed with me, she feels the same way. Isn’t this unfair of us, to look down on men who enjoy their bodies?

What about porn? I hate porn. Most of it disgusts me. But maybe that’s because it’s been tailored for male fantasy. Someone pls send me some female fantasy porn, purely for research purposes of course :P

The funny thing is, I am more turned on by the women in porn than the men. And I am pretty certain that I have no latent homosexual tendencies. Is this again because it is tailored for a male audience? Or is it because I am more used to seeing women depicted sexually rather than men?

So what is the female gaze? What defines it?

Comments welcome. Especially from the daughters of Eve.

PS: And while you’re at it, what would be a fitting answer to this infuriating supercilious question, “Are you a feminist?”