Reflections in the Eyes of a Man

If for Simone de Beauvoir “One is not born a woman, one becomes [a woman]”, for Nancy Huston “No westerner will be able to claim that their life was led free from propaganda which makes us all […] reflections in the eyes of a man”. In short, a woman will always be a woman, a prey, and a man, a hunter. In her last book, Reflets dans un œil d’homme (Reflections in the Eyes of a Man"), whilst acknowledging the appreciation of defended equality between males and females in our country, Nancy Huston chose to look at eternal masculinity. But what does he do, the man she describes in these pages? He has an innate predisposition to desire the women he sees, whilst they take pleasure in this outlook as it prepares them for their fertilisation. In short ladies, you cannot escape a man’s gaze, the desire it brings, it’s what makes you want to stay beautiful beyond reason. Your image, conveyed by the mirror, then by photography and finally today by advertisements show you the level of beauty that you must reach. But this male desire is also what pushes men to want us too much, to bully us, and rape us even under this natural and historical empire of desire.

Nancy Huston relies on experts, her male friends and the story of Jean Seberg or of Marilyn Monroe, killed by male desires.