The Female Gaze

Teach the girls that we were taught to look at pictures through the eyes of a man, Alone in the dark room of a cinema where each spectator builds dreams & fantasies, Our empathy with the hero is always a he, and we frame a woman body as a man would.

« In movies it’s never like that. You know I think that movies are a conspiracy. I mean it, they are actually a conspiracy because they set you up for it. They set you up from the time you are a little kid, they set you up to believe in everything. They set you up to believe in ideals and strength and good guys and romance and of course love. So you believe it, right, you go out, you start looking, it doesn’t happen, you keep looking »

Gena Rowlands // Minnie Moskowitz // John Cassavetes

I am learning to trust my own eyes,
peeling off my mind those male blankets
that were put in front of my head.

How is a girl looking
at other girls
at men
at the world.

Gaze at girls, gaze at their breasts,
their thighs, their legs
like watching a man’s hand, a torso,
a cup of coffee or a cigarette.

Austin, Texas 2017