They momentarily lose the right or power to have the courage to look. All these above examples form part of a myriad of social forms of eye contact and looking. However they are forms that are generalised. Of interest to this discussion is the subject of sexual eye contact specifically and what analysis of the subject can teach us about sexual conduct and power. For this purpose it is appropriate to firstly divide eye contact between a few different categories.
Men look at women for a number of reasons, even within the context of sexual looking.
Firstly it is probably true that most men look at a woman initially in order to make an assessment of her attractiveness as a woman. If he is single he may attempt to make a judgement about her quality as a sexual subject and a potential sexual partner. He may do so even if he is already with another female. The looking by a male is then a qualitative and aesthetic scrutiny. It involves a myriad of pieces of social, biological and subjective pieces of information that he processes in his mind.