On power relations underlying the relations of looking - women’s accounts of being looked at by men

What is it about?

This article proposes a discursive approach to beauty, which it illustrates with a close data analysis of women's accounts of their experiences of being looked at by men. It takes the perspectives of Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis and Discursive Psychology to show ambiguities and contradictions of women’s relationship with the ‘male gaze’. The discussion is based on the analysis of interviews collected among young women in South Africa.

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Why is it important?

The analysis of women’s contradictory and ambiguous relationship with the male gaze demonstrates the importance of addressing the issues of the body, gender and power from a complex perspective. In the study, a feminist poststructuralist perspective on the relations of gender is combined with women's lived understandings of being implicated in them. In the article, the approach is discussed with reference to the critical feminist analyses of discourse.