ODE TO FEMALE BEAUTY: THE MALE GAZE PARADIGM

Abstract

Beauty is a common concept and widely discussed across cultures of the world, although cultures have variations with respect to what is considered beautiful. A common factor that cuts across world cultures is that beauty is gendered and generally seen as a female attribute. However, the concept of beauty is problematized since, in patriarchal societies, the female is viewed as a sex object. Although much has been written by Igbo scholars about beauty, inadequate attention has been paid to the reflection of beauty in Igbo literature. Consequently, this study examines a literature, written in the Igbo medium by a male writer, with a view to estimating the perspective from which the author considers the subject of his inquiry. Ihebuike Madubuike’ poem Ugomma was purposively selected from Utara Nti, an anthology of Igbo poems. Mulvey’s (1975) theory of the Male Gaze was used to guide analysis. The result shows that the poet perceived his subject Ugomma as an object designed to satisfy men’s erotic passion. The poet employed several graphic imageries to describe various parts of the subject’s body such as her neck, skin colour, body, gait, etc. passion for the maiden led the poet into a flight in an imaginative fairy land where everything was beautiful, and the poet longed to consummate his love with the maiden in a certain river in his mother’s village. Although, the poet was concerned with the inner beauty of the maiden, his chief focus was on her physical attributes that completely fascinated him. The study posits that women should not be seen as objects, but there should be a balance in how men see them. While noting the physical attributes of women, male writers and men in the society should also feature the values and worth of women. In the same way, while women endeavour to enhance their looks, which is an outcome of the male gaze, they should pay more attention to enhancing their characters so that society will be presented with a holistic and complete woman.