Male Gaze

Sexage and the “male gaze” are seen throughout the book “The House on Mango Street.” One of the first passages that stuck out in my mind was Esperanza’s great-grandfather and his usage of “the male gaze.” This passage shows how Esperanza’s great-grandfather views his newly-wed wife; “Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier (11).” Another passage I found prevalent was when Esperanza and her sister’s are walking down the street with their “new shoes.” “Lucy, Rachel, me tee-tottering like so. Down to the corner where the men can’t take their eyes off us. We must be Christmas (40).” In this passage the girls are viewed through “the male gaze” by several men around their trip. One man in particular (a bum man) tries to persuade one of the girls to kiss him. Although the girls run off in this venture, Esperanza is again faced with the same type of attack, but with a different man. Referring to an Oriental man that she worked with who asks her if he could have a birthday kiss. “He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn’t let go (55).” Her mother often uses sexage throughout the book. One example is the passage about her mother not buying the “new shoes” for Esperanza. This example shows how her mother doesn’t want Esperanza to subjected to the society around them. There are numerous accounts in which Esperanza is viewed with “the male gaze”, too many to document in this small blog.