{"id":2049,"date":"2025-12-02T00:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2026-04-19T13:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:55:24","slug":"what-the-male-gaze-stole-from-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/what-the-male-gaze-stole-from-us\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Male Gaze Stole From Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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FEATURES AND EDITORIALS<\/a><\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What the Male Gaze Stole from Us<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Words and Article Banner by Ella Oreta<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tNovember 20, 2025<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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It\u2019s strange how something as natural as a pair of breasts can turn you into a target. They\u2019re just body parts, but the world doesn\u2019t see them that way.

\n\nSociety turns them into symbols of sex, morality, maturity, and even worth.

\n\nAccording to a 2016 Philippine Daily Inquirer report 70% of Filipino women have experienced harassment in public spaces\u2014many of them when they were still just girls.

\n\nPuberty may be starting earlier around the world, but the way society reacts hasn\u2019t evolved at all. Girls are still sexualized long before they\u2019re old enough to understand what\u2019s happening to them.

\n\nThe male gaze is defined as a feminist theory describing how visual arts, media, and literature often portray the world and women from a masculine, heterosexual perspective, objectifying women for the male viewer.

\n\nThe theory created by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975 suggests that this perspective frames female characters and bodies as passive objects to be looked at, satisfying male pleasure and desire.

The gaze is what trains men to desire what culture glorifies: breasts as fantasy, currency, and proof of maturity. And for women, it created a double bind. We are deemed indecent if we show our bodies, yet insecure if we hide them.

\n\nAlmost every woman has fallen victim to the male gaze. We are constantly catcalled on the street for simply wearing a tank top, walking alone, or existing without apology. But it doesn\u2019t stop there.

\n\nIt follows us home, creeping into classrooms, offices, and even relationships.

\n\nIn a patriarchal world, affection can start to feel like surveillance. When a compliment becomes a warning, when love turns into control, and when being seen no longer feels like being valued, but being watched. A low neckline becomes a reason for jealousy.

\n\nStudies show men with higher \u201chostile sexism\u201d scores are more likely to control what their partners wear or who they talk to (Glick & Fiske, 1996). A compliment from another man becomes a \u201cbetrayal\u201d.

\n\nAnd just when we feel like we\u2019ve had enough, the very industries that claim to make us feel confident in our bodies prove they\u2019re on the patriarchal side, too.

\n\nThe lingerie and fashion industry capitalize on the sexualization of breasts; promising empowerment while selling insecurity. The global lingerie market is worth over $80 billion, yet most designs still cater only to cup sizes A through C.

\n\nIn the Philippines, bras above 36C are rare and often priced two to three times higher.

\n\nWhat a contradictory world we live in, one where a woman walks into a store and hears \u201cwe don\u2019t carry your size,\u201d<\/i> realizing the irony of paying more just to feel comfortable.

\n\nIn the workplace, we see the male gaze in an even scarier lense.

\n\nAuthority is used as a weapon with supervisors or colleagues threatening to leverage promotions, evaluations, or job security to manipulate and intimidate women.

\n\nSexual harassment, whether through comments, unwanted touches, or suggestive jokes, is rarely about attraction; its about control.

\n\nWomen are degraded for their appearance, attire, or behavior while men\u2019s actions are shrugged off as harmless or excused with \u201che didn\u2019t mean it.\u201d <\/i>

\n\nMicroaggressions, dismissals, and constant scrutiny reinforce the same message women experience on the street: their bodies exist for others\u2019 approval and their voices are secondary.

\n\nThe environment forces women to shrink themselves, walk on eggshells, and adjust how they speak, act, or even dress to avoid scrutiny, all while their competence and authority are questioned.

\n\nWorkplace harassment mirrors the male gaze in media, with men occupying the central role while women are relegated to supporting characters, props, or obstacles in someone else\u2019s story.

\n\n\nBut hey, what can we do? After all, \u201cboys will be boys,\u201d<\/i> right?

\n\nIt\u2019s the same excuse the world has been using for generations. The same gaze that sexualizes women also excuses harassment and assault.

\n\nFrom catcalls to coercion, men justify their behavior by claiming they \u201ccouldn\u2019t help it.\u201d What\u2019s worse is that everyone else has been conditioned to justify it too.

\n\nWomen are told to cover up, to expect attention, to take responsibility for men\u2019s lack of control. Sexual abuse is framed as a \u201cmisunderstanding,\u201d not an act of domination.

When women speak up, its seen as an exaggeration, seeking attention, or ruining someone\u2019s reputation. When we stay silent, we\u2019re blamed for not doing enough to protect ourselves.

\n\nThere\u2019s no winning in a system designed to make us lose.

\n\nGenerations of women have learned to shrink themselves, to laugh off comments, to walk faster, to carry keys between their fingers, all because the world refuses to teach men not to harm us.

\n\nThe burden of safety, like the burden of shame, always falls on us.

\n\n\nJust how ironic is it that we\u2019re the ones forced to adjust? How uncanny is it that the very thing they objectify is the same thing that gives them life?

\n\nBreasts feed children, anchor health, and symbolize strength\u2014yet society only sees sex.

\n\nThey forget that these bodies are not built for their fantasies but for our (including men\u2019s) survival.

\n\nThey forget that behind every chest is a heart, a story, and a woman begging to just exist and be seen behind that chest without apology.

\n\nWe spend years unlearning the shame the world teaches us to carry and learning that our worth isn\u2019t measured by how desirable we are in the eyes of a man.

\n\n\nEnough is enough. The world has framed women in a story written for men. Every glance, every comment, every expectation reduces us to background, props, or prizes.

Our bodies are treated like stages for their fantasies, while our worth is measured by how well we fit into their plot. Men see women as characters to be controlled, watched, or possessed.

\n\nThe problem is not our bodies. This is the very thing that the male gaze stole from us: it stole our right to be whole, to be seen, and to live without being reduced to a prop in someone else\u2019s story.\n<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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FEATURES AND EDITORIALS What the Male Gaze Stole from Us Words and Article Banner by Ella Oreta November 20, 2025 It\u2019s strange how something as natural as a pair of breasts can turn you into a target. They\u2019re just body parts, but the world doesn\u2019t see them that way. Society turns them into symbols of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049"}],"version-history":[{"count":97,"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3965,"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasyabra.com\/iteration3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}