The Male Gaze & Objectification of Little Girls

I must have been five, maybe six, when I first felt that silent yet persistent gaze from an anonymous onlooker. It was an unsettling look that would stay with me throughout my life. The same chilling sensation overcame me as when, sitting on the couch at home, you feel like you’re being watched. But no, it wasn’t a human, an alien, or a yellow-eyed owl perched on a branch watching you from outside the window. It was worse. A collective gaze, a group’s stare, a swarm of heads pricking at your back. The Men. Or, back then, the ‘Boyfriend’. “Well done, make yourself beautiful, that way you’ll find a boyfriend!” “Don’t use foul language, or you’ll never find a date like that.” From a young age, I was somehow taught to expect the gaze of boys, to attract it, and to satisfy it. The Male would always be there to judge me, relentlessly. Like a universal, fair, and stern judge. A ‘God’. And my parents didn’t hesitate to remind me that the day of judgment would come soon. “Don’t speak like that. What would your boyfriend say?” As unfair as it is to impose such enormous expectations on little girls from perfect strangers, many girls have learned to appreciate this new 'God.' To blush. To chase after him. To worship him. And we had fun with very little, imagining with wide-eyed wonder which classmate would become our little Childhood Sweetheart. <a href="https://medium.com/@daesciolla/the-male-gaze-objectification-of-little-girls-837cbf24e168">Website</a>