In two offline interventions, a total of 12 women were face-painted and interviewed by me. 9 audience were only willing to accept changes to their eyeshadow colours, 1 audience wanted me to paint a tear for her and 2 audience members were not willing to do the painting but accepted my interview.
In the intervention, I encouraged the girls to tell me what kind of image they wanted to become without taking into account the gaze of others. I can clearly sense that participants will still be apprehensive. We started off outside outside in a coffee shop then I moved the venue to my home so that the participants could be more relaxed to have a conversation. I put some answers in the below and I have used the form F+Number instead of the names of the participants.
F1: Chose pink eyeshadow. She is a bisexual and when I asked if she changes herself because of the male gaze, she gave me the answer that she defined her image according to the style she likes but sometimes will dress the way the partner likes.
F2:Chose green eyeshadow. She told me she had never tried this colour of makeup before. She admits that she is very influenced by the male gaze and is concerned about her body, has tried to lose weight by drinking only juice and every month she goes for skin management. Sometimes she feels tired too, but once she stops the thoughts and behaviours affected by the male gaze, it makes her anxious again and sleepless. She thought that the male gaze had a strong influence on her Individuality and that these mental health problems were likely to be caused by the male gaze, but she hadn’t even been aware of it before. “It’s really scary”, she said.
F3: Don’t like make-up. This time she doesn’t joinus for the face painting either. But she also thinks she is affected by the male gaze. She is very concerned about sun protection not wanting her skin tone to darken and regularly gets her eyelashes permed. She believes that the male gaze only has very little effect on her individuality.
F4: Don’t like make-up. Her sexual orientation is female. But she has also been subjected to male gaze culture on social media. Some guys comment on her dress, her hair under her account. She couldn’t control caring and for that reason she reduced posting pictures of herself on social media.
F5: Chose blue eyeliner. She told me she didn’t care about the male gaze in social media or what people thought of her. The only thing that causes her pain is that her mother is assimilated into the male gaze and only sees her as a commodity. She would be scolded if her clothes didn’t fit or hanging out with her boyfriend. At the end of the conversation her mom always says, “Look what man will marry you.”
F6:Let me draw a tear for her. This participant told me that she had some tendency to depression. When she uses social media, she is very concerned about what people think of her and what they say about her.She sometimes has a hard time controlling her emotions and can’t stop crying.
After completing the intervention, I felt a deep sadness. Most participants were not even aware of the male gaze or even had become accustomed to it. Although many of the participants were aware of the male gaze, they had become accustomed to it. They were subliminally affected and their individuality was worn down. At the same time, the self-objectification takes a serious toll on them both physically and mentally. This intervention does make the stakeholders aware and conscious of the impact of the male gaze, but it is difficult to help them escape it. I felt very powerless at one point, but they encouraged me to see that the power of women helping women can be passed on to them and affect them more deeply. Although our individual power is small, just one more person being able to understand and be aware of the bondage of the male gaze can be a success. Also stakeholders agree that image changes do change their feelings/thoughts, but everyone has a different perspective and I need to be very careful. Image changes that involve stakeholders’ personal perspectives tend to have a positive impact, but image changes such as face painting are difficult to spread quickly to everyone (usually a face painting takes 10-15 minutes). My next step is to think of how each stakeholder can be involved in their own image change and make a positive impact.I think by doing this intervention, I am not only helping the stakeholders, they are also helping me. Male gaze is a reflection of sexist and patriarchal societies, and these social issues contain historical elements that are difficult to address immediately. But I hope that I can use my power to free more women from the influence of the male gaze on their personalities.