The Gaze

 (All images from this post were taken from the internet.)

      Media has undergone shifts throughout the years, but the general outlines have remained the same  since the 1920s. Women are the center of question in literature, film and all other content produced today. Writers like Berger, Hooks, and Mulvey attempt in a series of texts to factually categorize, and analyze topics surrounding female objectivity, while establishing terms such as the male gaze.

         Lauren Mulvey writes that the male gaze is when a women is objectified because of her appearance to a male viewer. “Women writers often create their own doubles as monstrous or madwomen characters, as Charlotte Bronte did with Berthe, in their struggle with authorial identity and the male tradition.” (Mulvey, pg.106) Mulvey writes when referring to Gorrise’s work that women judge themselves through a male perspective. She analyzes female reflections in literature as a form of  conceptualizing feminism.

Women are led to believe that nudity is a form of gaining an audience in todays media. “To be nude is to be seen by others and yet not recognized by oneself.” (Berger, pg. 10) According to Berger your body and appearance is what defines you as a person in the norms of media. A problem that many actresses, models, and female characters face when trying to establish their place in the media industry is when they are not fit to meet the criteria set by the male gaze. 

Visually Engaging with someone of power, or staring back places vision in a defying position. “There is power in looking…Not only will I stare, but my look will change reality.” (Hooks, pg. 116) According to Bell Hooks in her text “The Oppositional Gaze,” the gaze is a form of subliminal visual communication. Hooks, with the theory of the gaze developed a subcategory defined as the oppositional gaze. The oppositional gaze is characterized by her as a look of defiance and was a term developed to defy male objectification of women, and negation of black females from media. Hooks also speaks about race and how beauty is portrayed in the media through the perception of the white male, creator of media, thus leaving young black females unrepresented in the public eye, or in this case in the white males eyes, the spectator and content producer. 

I think that the male gaze is very much alive because media continues to objectify women to maintain the opinion of the white supremacist male. It is demonstrated in reality T.V shows where females become famous for their bodies rather than intellectual capacity. Instead of forming the oppositional gaze I feel that the community of young females intaking this media are being misguided into believing that they’re only duty in society will always be to satisfy a man, even if a high ranking position is reached by that woman. “Major early black male independent film makers represented black women in their films as objects of male gaze.”(Hooks, pg. 118) Hook’s bring’s into context that this isn't a relatively new problem, but rather a problem that has been neglected. The lack of education, and proper representation of facts need to be addressed. 

After my years spent in college, and a failed attempt at marriage, I came to realize that the lack of understanding, and misguidance led me to place myself in what I now recognize as the male gaze. The oppositional gaze in correlation with what Bell Hooks says is developed when a woman is able to identify that she is being objectified, and that she can choose to defy and question the content and how she is being perceived by society.

         While researching the term male gaze I came across a current topic that I found very interesting involving the famed singer Beyonce Knowles. The article questioned whether Beyonce with her recent attempts at advocacy statements via her music and performances was fit to be a feminist because of  her appearance. It is vital to see that she is being placed into question because of the clothes she wears and the sexual performances she has displayed in the past. As a woman I believe that she may be at a different place, after all becoming a mother is a learning process. Parenting urges some to understand the world. Beyonce is now not only judging her actions but that of those around her on behalf of her growing daughter.

Works cited:

1. Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books

2. Hooks, Bell (1992) Black Looks : Race and Representation, Chapter 7 "The Oppositional Gaze"

3. Mulvey, Laura (1975) "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Film Theory and Criticism