The thing that has stuck with me the most from any art class I’ve taken is the idea of the panopticon. The panopticon is this idea of a round prison with a guard tower in the center. The prisoners do not know when there is a guard watching, and as a result, they self-regulate.

The office I worked in had an open lay-out, and I couldn’t help but think about this idea. I worked, and I was always worried that my co-workers or boss could see me, and it made me uncomfortable at times. I ended up becoming a bit stricter with myself over my time working there, which is probably good in the long run as a future employee, but I always felt a little stifled by the feeling of being watched.

On TikTok, a similar thing happens. Many people will avoid saying words such as sex, drugs, or murder in order to avoid being banned or having their video taken down. Instead, they replace them with “seggs” or “unaliving.” In reality, TikTok doesn’t have a list of banned phrases at all. The creators just believe that there is someone watching and moderating their content in this way and act accordingly. Sure, there are some guidelines, but they don’t go to this extent.

From a feminist lens, I think there are some similarities with the concept of the panopticon and the male gaze. The idea of the male gaze is used in art and visual media to describe the way that women are depicted as sexual objects. There is a Margaret Atwood quote that states “You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.” Atwood is poking at the idea of women internalizing societal views of women and then applying it to themselves, essentially acting as a version of the male gaze themselves. This is in line with the idea of panopticon and self-regulation as a woman alters their actions and way of being because they are being watched by a man. In my own life, it appears as thinking I look ugly at home or going out and feeling like I have to be perceived as attractive by others.

Anyhow, once I learned about this concept, I was able to apply it to so many things in my own life, so I thought it would be worthwhile to share.