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OPINION

Andama Alfred Kili

By Andama Alfred Kili

Within the hallowed halls of academia, social relationships exist. One of these happens to be the male gaze, which shows up in subtle but important ways and affects how female students experience and think about how to interact with people of the opposite gender.

This phenomenon is everywhere on university campuses, from lecture halls to student life. It affects how people engage, how they see themselves, and their academic goals. For my graduate studies, I explored how the male gaze affects female students at Makerere University, focusing on what it means for their confidence, self-esteem and gender equality at the university as an example of a college or university.

Laura Mulvey and other feminist film theorists came up with the term "male gaze" to describe how visual media and social interactions are often shaped around a straight male point of view.

The male gaze comes from patriarchal structures that make men see and show women as objects of their desire, often basing their identities on how they look. In a normal college setting like Makerere University, it shows up in many ways, such as treating female students like objects, unequal power dynamics in the classroom, and pressure on campus to meet unrealistic beauty standards.

The male gaze affects female students in classes and lecture halls. This can be through the expectations and biases that male classmates set, or it can be more direct cases of internalised objectification. Female students feel like they are looked at closely and judged based on how they look and how well they follow the campus's beauty standards. This pressure to fit in makes female students feel bad about their bodies, self-conscious, and insecure, which makes it harder for them to fully participate in college life and schoolwork.

Because of what life in college expects of female students, they often have to pay extra. The female students pay for these things on their own, though parents and close siblings do sometimes pay for them. It's important to note that some female students who can't pay for these things end up in dangerous sexual relationships with men who help them pay for these things.

The effects of the male gaze on female students' mental health cannot be understated. Constant exposure to objectification and unrealistic beauty standards can lead to feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and depression. Moreover, the normalization of the male gaze perpetuates a culture of misogyny and sexism, further marginalizing female students and hindering their sense of belonging and well-being on campus.

Much as the effect of the male gaze was found to rest more on the female students, male students, too, were affected by the male gaze as they exert it. Male students acknowledge being distracted by their own gaze, especially during lectures which takes off their concentration from the subject matter being discussed.

It is, therefore, important to recognize the male gaze and address its effects, especially on female students in institutions of higher learning. In this case, inclusion of deliberate talks and messages on women’s agency helps to identify the male gaze and expose its effects on students thereby finding remedies to the negative effects.

Male students should be included in the discussion of the vice in male-only peer groups at the universities. Dialogues on sexuality should be organized to address the negative effects of the male gaze. Both female and male students should be involved in addressing the effects of the gaze.

In order to progress and change the negative effects of the male gaze on women at the university, female artists and actors that students admire and follow in the media i.e., the Art, movies, and TV shows, should help emphasize women’s agency instead of the opinion of the society on them.

It should be noted that many female students are actively challenging this norm, advocating for inclusivity, and reclaiming their autonomy and agency. From programmes like KISH (Kicking Sexual Harassment out of Higher Institutions of Learning) and other student-led initiatives, the students are promoting body positivity hence advocating for gender equality and less female objectification.

Finally, the male gaze casts a long shadow over the experiences of female students in higher institutions of learning, impacting their academic performance, social interactions, and mental health. By acknowledging its presence and actively working to challenge and dismantle its influence, universities particularly can create environments where all students, feel valued, respected, and empowered to thrive. It is through collective action and a commitment to fostering gender equality and inclusivity that we can create a campus culture free from the constraints of the objectifying gaze – the male gaze.

The writer researched on the subject for his Master of Arts in Gender Studies at Makerere University Kampala 

This article was first published in New Vision on March 8, 2024.