The Gaze In Society

What is considered as the term ‘the gaze' can be constructed of how a society views individuals or even a group of individuals of the same qualities. An individual's perception can affect the functionality of society and civilisation. By assessing the gaze, we can determine how groups of individuals will be treated. It is common that the different groups of minorities that make up society, for example- homosexuals, will stand out of the ‘norms' that make up our everyday lives which can, in turn, be the reason these minorities are thus ostracised or become what is considered "the other". As a result, this creates systems of power, a person who is ‘othered' is diminished of power in comparison to the majority who fits in societies understandings …show more content…
The fundamentals of our speech construct this representation and implement these ideas of power from when we start speaking at a young age. Very few forms of the female term are not constructed with the masculine, not to mention the general term for people- human has composed itself with the masculine term- man. We can assess that by allowing languages to ensure the inclusion of the masculine term that the male is dominant and consequently making the woman submissive in society. By allowing men, man and male to be the suffix to the female form we already establish power and weakness in the different genders. Speech plays a tremendously important role in our lives and subconsciously we have accepted that woman is the most vulnerable sex.
Literature, particularly in the present has had increasing numbers of the female heroine such as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. However, this was not such a common occurrence until recently. Predominantly in romance novels, most iconic female roles played the ‘damsels in distress'. The influence of literature has allowed us to believe that woman are in need of saving and need a man in order to do so. This creates a civilisation where it becomes the accepted normal behaviour to assume that males are ordinarily the heroes, giving the gender their …show more content…
For instance, the Muslim culture. A general practice in the culture is being modest, however, women are oppressed to wear large black cloths to cover themselves fully and society accepts, however, it is fine for men to not go through the same procedures to ensure their modesty. It can be questioned that then the woman's figure in itself is not as modest as the males and as a result, she must be hidden. Although the ritual of covering themselves is something that is normal in their culture and willingly accepted, a system of power is put in place. Men are instantly elevated where they don't have to conform to the same rules that a woman would have to follow, therefore the woman is viewed once more as the weaker sex in society. These small practices lead to societies gaze on the