8 Quotes About Male Gaze

Thanks to the internet, we live in a society where men and women are exposed to a constant stream of images of other people. We’re exposed to photos and videos of people doing things, many of which we’d never have a reason or opportunity to do ourselves. In fact, it’s estimated that since the birth of the internet, women have been shown as much as 100,000 times more than men. This shows that representation is key when it comes to gender equality Read more

Today we want to look at all the ways that our culture objectifies women to create unrealistic beauty standards. And, because it can be hard for some women to accept this reality, we’ve created a list of male-gaze quotes about what it means to be sexualized.

There are plenty of images of women in science fiction....
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There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There are hardly any women. Joanna Russ
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Female competition is when you are with a guy you like and you look around, see that you're the prettiest girl in the vicinity and feel a huge sense of relief that there's no one to take the attention away from you. (Female competition is a result of women feeling like their greatest sense of self worth , identity and influence comes from their sexual appeal to men. Many women don't even realise they are feeling this way and it's a subconscious thing, but they notice themselves getting jealous when they see other women who they think men would find sexually appealing.) . Miya Yamanouchi
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Female competition is when you are with a guy you like and you look around, see a girl who is prettier than you standing nearby, and think to yourself: "I wish she wasn't here." -This is what happens when you attach your identity and sense of worth to the amount of male attention you receive. Miya Yamanouchi
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Women aren't my competition because male attention and sexual objectification are not prizes for me. Miya Yamanouchi
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I spent a lot of time vacillating between wanting to be seen as attractive, being terrified by too much attention, and wanting to succeed and fit in without anyone's noticing me. Kim Gordon
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There is no need for arms, physical violence, material constraints. Just a gaze. An inspecting gaze, a gaze that each individual under its weight will end by [internalising] to the point that they are their own overseer, each individual thus exercising surveillance over, and against themself. Michel Foucault
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There’s something different about when a female directs versus a male. The level of maturity, mutual respect, and energy that you get from a female director is so different. I’ve worked with male directors who aren’t good, and no one says anything about it, but then we had one female director who was kind of all over the place and everyone complained. It’s so gendered. I feel safer when working with a female director because I know it’s from a female gaze. Rowan Blanchard