The Female Gaze

The chasm between public and private expectations of women is on glaring display in the marketplace. In the Female Gaze, I take a clear-eyed look at the marketing of misogyny as I walk through the bazaar modestly dressed, dodging gropes and catcalls, setting my sights on the most priceless of Goods: freedom. The specific location is Cairo, Egypt, but the struggles women face are universal. As a white, privileged American, my understanding of Egyptian and Muslim cultures is limited at best. With respect for both, this photo series represents an outsider's yearning to understand Egyptian women's experiences, and to identify with their struggles as women contending with many of the same social strictures across cultures. It is not my intention to disparage women who choose to wear the hijab or the burqa; as the brilliant Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi noted, the veil is no different from makeup in that both revolve around male desire. Whether it is an Instagram filter like Facetune, or a bridal veil, or the mask of docility, or the shield of a smile in the face of threat, all women, myself included, wear veils of one kind or another. This portfolio attempts to unmask and lay bare the mundane gender inequality we face, my own hawker's cry that we might profit from progress.