Male gaze and album art

The male gaze, according to an art critic, John Berger in ways of seeing, Berger describes the male gaze as the act of portraying women and society,  in the literary and visual arts from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that portrays women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the straight male watcher.  Album art in the music industry is one of the first images viewers see before listening to music.  The art that artists select can help draw more attention to the music but it also enhances the image of the artist. Album art in hip hop/ rap music today sexualizes and objectifies women by often posting half-naked women in sexualized poses.  Society showcasing these half-naked women not only contributes and further normalizes the sexualization and objectifying of women but it encourages more heterosexual men who look up to the artists they are listening to are encouraged to do the same, creating spaces for both misanthropy and misogynoir in the curated male gaze used against the models. The male gaze in album art is an issue in society today because young men are being trained at a young age that it is acceptable to see women as these sexualized objects whose sole purpose is to be fetishized. They are spoon-fed explicit content of these objectified women on social media and are taught to reiterate it as normal.