Mulvey and Post-modern Women

Women erotic portrayal on magazines’ front pages, pictures of fashion supermodels, women celebrities and singers, make me feel that it is not the patriarchal society that displays women as sexual objects , on the contrary, it is women’s choice to be displayed this way. We are no long living in a patriarchal society in which men dictate their decisions on women. If women desire to be displayed otherwise, maybe the whole image of women will change. Far way from the cinema, when I see female students in campus as well as women in the street, I say it is not the phallocentric society that made them look this way. It is their own choice to display themselves as erotic objects for the male. It is their own liking and free will to dress, walk and talk in an erotic way not for the purpose of seducing men, but to feel contented with themselves and to have that sense of appreciating their beauty and body. This of course appeals to the “scopophilia” of men as part of their sensual pleasures, but it is not MAN'S will.

To add more, I don’t like the idea of identifying men and women by means of having or not having a penis. It is really shameful to be identified as human beings by our sexual organs whose behavior is subject to their basic instincts. This distinction applies to males and females of animals, and there is a great difference between a man or a woman on one hand and a male or female on the other. We as a race have been elevated in our creation to be something more than animals. We have our beliefs, principles, and the ability to control ourselves which make us different.