Emma Stern's Eulogy for The Male Gaze

These women have thoroughly internalized the male gaze, their to-be-looked-at-ness, and arrived at a place of incredible power — as objects. Their struggle, as evidenced by the ample time we spend with those who’ve “retired,” is figuring a sense of self outside of that objecthood.

The artist Gina Malek had made a similar suggestion …. "Just walk up to a piece and try to think of five things that it brings up," she suggested. Not five things that the art is about. The observations don't need to be grandiose, like this probes masculinity in the postinternet age. Just, what are five things you notice, either in the wo

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People like pretty things. When you’re pretty, everybody wants to look at you, they want to touch you. I wanted that for myself. Prettiness means value. But some people never experience that personally. I was young once, but I was never pretty. When something isn’t there, inside or out, how are you supposed to seek it out? Pretty faces, gorgeous sk

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