4 FEATURES
THE FOUNDER November 2021
The Male Gaze SELA MUSA | FEATURES EDITOR
Content Warning: Sexual Harassment
I
n literature, art, visual media, and other cinematographic outlets, the male gaze is the visual positioning of women as an ‘object of heterosexual male desire,’ (2016, The Conversation). In real life, it is the keeping your head glued down towards the pavement so as not to hold the few too-many seconds of eye contact that burns through you by a passer-by. It is men with their hands on the wheel and their eyes off the road, slowly rotating their heads as the car drives past you on the residential road that you walk to get to your lecture. It is the tugging at the hem of your skirt, the trying to pull your top both up and down simultaneously in the hopes of it covering more skin, when the figure walking in the opposite direction starts to take the shape of a male form. All in vain, they know where to pierce their stares anyway, and how to make you walk the rest of your journey home with an unsettling feeling of guilt and deservingness that you cannot quite untangle. It is the punishment for feeling confident, feeling attractive. You do not feel like feeling those things afterwards.
BBC News reports that incidents of sexual harassment reports on public transport have increased by 63% across the UK compared to pre-pandemic times. This is just those that have gone reported, and it is estimated that around 80% of rapes and sexual assault cases go unreported, (2018, Brennan Center). This is not new information – it is not a new topic. This has been discussed for some time now and many (most likely men) may be feeling frustrated with this ‘hot topic’ that so often makes them men feel guilty for being men. No, it is not all men, and the narrative should not be framed around morally convicting all men. But it is all women. It is all women. There is a reason that you do not know a woman who does not know of another woman that has not been sexually harassed. I do not know one woman who has not been catcalled or been beeped at. I do not know one woman who has not had a man kind of innocently graze their back as they try to get past them in the club. And that last case – it most likely is innocent. But that is the whole point. It has become so normalised to touch a woman in everyday contexts, harmlessly, innocently, that men could not possibly comprehend how abnormal that is. Of course, most men do not understand the problems with grazing your back as they try to get past you in a club. Of course, they feel frustrated when they are told that they have just contributed to the problem. Those people simply cannot relate to the feeling of being inside a body, your literal only shell, that others feel like they can just touch. And they do.
Just a hand at the bottom of your back, a thank you with a light graze of the arm. All harmless, so harmless! But why are you touching me? Why are you touching me? Why are you touching me? No, I am not arrogant. I am not being rude. I am not being unfriendly or over the top.
It is a very strange feeling to know that your body, the literal thing that you are, cannot protect you. No, it is not all men. But it is all women.
Source: The Harvard Crimson
‘I listen to a lot of true crime’
RUBY EASTON | CONTENT WRITER
F
ascination with murder is by no means a modern trait. Look to any form of storytelling in history and you will find tales upon tales marred with homicide, grizzly and graphic. However, it would be difficult not to notice the surge of interest in the macabre in recent years, particularly relating to an area of media known as true crime. This genre gives us a window into the grotesque, displaying genuine human stories tangled with psychology and puzzle-solving in neat podcast, video, or written format.
While documentaries on the subject are certainly still commonplace and widely consumed, the true crime phenomenon is also unique in the way it has become colloquial. Countless videos on YouTube contain makeup tutorials combined with the retelling of a rampant serial killer or the details of a mysterious cold case, bookended by Ads and sponsorships, of course. In a way, true crime is like a twisted form of gossip, we expect the details: names, times, locations, all while enjoying the stories in a casual setting.
