II. Men

Recent research in the field of psychology has concluded that exposure to images of attractive females in “sexually enticing situations...sexually provocative poses, or engaged in pre-coital behavior” (Weaver 929) does not significantly effect men’s satisfaction with the aesthetic appeal of their mates’ bodies or with their relationships overall (Weaver 930). Feminists have often cited the male gaze as a destructive force, blaming the male perception of the female body for female body hatred. These thinkers do not appreciate men’s ability to separate reality from fantasy.

As this study shows, men can simultaneously find a woman in an image attractive and be satisfied in their relationships with female sexual partners. Men do not seem to be comparing their sexual partners to an unachievable standard of beauty. While women do feel pressure to look attractive for their mates, I would argue that the male gaze is not solely to blame for the female desire to be beautiful. The female gaze, both the gaze of other women and the gaze of a particular woman turned upon herself, her self-perception, are equally destructive to, if not more destructive than, the gaze of the male. It is not men who pressure women to uphold the ideal standard of beauty. Rather, it is a combination of the collective perceptions of men, of other women, and of a woman’s own self that perpetuate the cycle of self-hatred.