Looking Is Just As Harmful As Touching

A brief history of the gaze.

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Picture this: you’re sitting at the park, people watching, and suddenly you find yourself subconsciously making judgments about a person based on their outward appearance.

What if I told you there was a name for this? A phenomenon known as the gaze. What if I told you that while this action may seem harmless, it actually often does a lot of harm?

I’m fascinated by the idea of being able to understand how and why people look at things in certain ways.

I truly want to understand why and how it’s so ingrained in American culture that if you are one thing you must look a certain way. If you’re a woman, you must have long hair. If you’re a man, you can’t wear pink.

The gaze and it’s many variations dive deep into this very complicated question.

The Male Gaze

When I think of the history of the gaze, I instantly think of Laura Mulvey. To be fair, my academic background in art history and critical theory gave me a leg up with this, but I feel like you’ve all probably heard of her too.