The above image is the front cover of GQ magazine, featuring Beyonce as the main focus. The image of Beyonce is very much sexualised, even more so than normal, and this is due to the image being for males and also controlled by males, as Rosalind Coward states,
'..entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women, and a circulation of women's images for men.' pg33 Rosalind Coward
GQ is a magazine that is generally read by males, so this image is for a male audience and is a representation of how men want to see Beyonce, she is the main focus on the page and is posing in a suggestive manner and pandering to the male gaze.
'The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets' pg33
Men looking at this image of Beyonce hold the power they can look at her, but she can't see them do so, but she is returning the look of desire that she wants them to look at her, she is just an object of sexual desire for the male. Where as women on the street will not pander to the male gaze they will usually try and ignore the male attention and not accept and become an object of their desire. Beyonce has created her look on purposes to appeal to men, thus accepting that they have power over her,
'Man the hunter, a sort of cross between a rutting stag and David Bailey, roam the street, pouncing on whatever appeals to his aesthetic sensibility. Women, meanwhile, cultivate their look, make themselves all the more appealing and siren-like, and lure men to a terrible fate – monogamy and the marital home.' pg34 Rosalind Coward
This states that men have the power, that they hunt down the woman, but that women also hold a bit of power, that they themselves make themselves beautiful so they can find a partner, but at the same time they lose the power as they are conforming, without realising, to what the male wants, and are actually doing it for the benefits of the man.
One of the main reasons why men like to look at women on billboards and in magazines and images like this example of Beyonce, is that they hold the power. They can look at the image in a very voyeuristic sense. It gives men the control, he's looking at her, and she wants him to look at her, the man will not get rejected or his ego hurt.
'Perhaps this sex-at-a-distance is the only complete secure relation which men can have with women. Perhaps other forms of contact are too unsettling.' pg34 Rosalind Coward
If Beyonce was to walk down the street, or be sat in a cafe, the men who view her would not approach her in a way that she is an object for their sexual pleasure, they would be intimidated by real life beyonce and feel less of a man due to her power and the fear or rejection. Men prefer the fantasy, as in the fantasy the power and control is all theirs.
Women who view these images of women see them in a different way. As this image of Beyonce is obviously disreble to men, women will look at it and want to look how Beyonce looks, they will want her figure, her hair, her clothes, whatever males in society think is desirable women will then want it, as that is what is deemed attractive.
'Women's relation to these cultural ideals, and therefore to their own images, is more accurately described as a relation of narcissistic damage. Even women's relation to their own mirror image is retrospectively damaged by that critical glance of the cultural ideal.' pg38 Rosalind Coward
Women feel they don't compare to these 'perfect women' who men idolise, so place themselves under scrutiny and try and change themselves, to be more appealing for the man, although they will probably say they are doing it for themselves, they want to feel good, look good etc. This is how powerful the male gaze has become in society, women conform to making themselves look good for men, without even realise that, that is what they are doing, as the better they make themselves look the more attention they will get from men, even if they don't want it.
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