On ways of seeing/viewing

The “male gaze” and the “oppositional gaze” are two concepts, both dealing with the harmful role that the media has played on representing women in film, advertisements, and TV. The concepts observe that this portrayal of women is originated from a social system that caters to a patriarchal and white supremacist structure, creating a media culture that objectifies women in visual media and thus in our society.

Laura Mulvey brings us the theory of the “male gaze” on her book Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. On the other hand, Bell Hooks talks about the “oppositional gaze” on her work In Black Looks: Race and Representation. They both approach their topics by focusing on the psychological power of our capacity of seeing (gaze). The "male gaze" and the "oppositional gaze" complement each other in their conceptual approach since Mulvey is more interested in the psychological charge of the gaze, and Hooks includes the variable of racism to that, tracing it from the times of slavery.

The “male gaze”, as I understand it, is the premise that asserts that women are objectified by the media. It assembles its concept from the basis of two conditions, living in a patriarchal social system and the voyeuristic model of media outlets. The conjunction of these two facts targets women bodies to create a narrative that objectifies the existence or presence of women in media. According to Mulvey, this form of gaze is responsive to both, the instinctive pleasure that humans have in looking, scopophilia, and the fact that we are taught – in the traditional way of child-rearing – patriarchal rules from the moment we come into this world. In her own words, “As an advanced representation system, the cinema poses questions of the ways the unconscious (formed by the dominant order) structure ways of seeing and pleasure in looking” (Mulvey, 834). Thus, these tow conditions allow for this perverse gaze to be carried down from generation to generation.

Mulvey explains, “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly” (Mulvey, 837). An example of this affirmation is the so-called “red carpet” shows. I personally seat in front of the TV and be amused by the display of women’s fashion, from the most simple and conservative approach to style, to the wildest and most extrovert dress. They walk, then they stop, turn around, pose, smile, keep walking, stop again, and the display goes on. On the other hand, male celebrities’ variations in suits is limited to probably two different kinds of tuxedos. It seems as though, the "red carpet" is showcasing the female body as a traditional pop culture worship. It is so natural to find pleasure in this spectacle that one forgets that this is an inculcated patriarchal behavior dating back centuries ago. The video included in this blog from the 2014 Oscars exemplifies the concept of the "male gaze". Thus, I, then, belong to the communal act of “male gaze”, and I, now, will watch with a guilty pleasure.

The oppositional gaze recognizes that there exists sexism and racism in media. This is reflected on the fact that media has been modeled to comply with patriarchal rules, and it has also been racist towards the black female representation and audience. In recognition to these facts, the oppositional gaze establish a call to audiences to approach media from an analytical and objective position (in the same way that the "male gaze" does), or in simple words, to admit that there is a problem of sexism and racism in media, and that we may support media outlets that don’t perpetuate this problem.

Bell Hooks departs from the first feminist analysis done about media criticism and adds to it the problem of black women representation and spectatorship in the context of white supremacist culture. She affirms that mainstream feminist film critics don’t acknowledge black female spectatorship, and also suppresses reconnection of race, silencing the discussion of racial difference. Thus, Hooks states that women can construct an oppositional gaze via an understanding and awareness of the politics of race and gender (Hooks, 123). The following link is an article that explains contemporary difficulties of racism and sexism in media in a very popular show from the time this post is written:

Article: White Chick Behind Bars Netflix’s Orange is the New Black gets an ‘A’ on queer issues, a ‘C’ on race and an ‘F’ on class.

On this matter, it is easy to understand the authors’ points of view. On the other hand, it is very difficult to shed the centuries of cultural brain washed. As John Berger explains, the representation of women under a patriarchal system dates back to the 18^th and 19^th century oil paintings, and even further back to the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. Berger explains that the difference between a man and a women is the entitlements that each gender have under a patriarchy society. According to him, "a man embodies power, and represents what he is able to do to you and for you" (Berger, 45-46); on the other hand, "a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her" (Berger 46). Since women's attitude is so inward and her position in society so internalized, he adds that women's cognition of herself "comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman" (Berger 46). This is the thesis of his theory about how woman are being objectified by men in this patriarchal society. This theory then derives into two concepts, that of being naked and that of being nude, as two distinct notions defined by the male observer. Naked is being in an "equal" physical state. Nude, as opposed to naked, is to be seen by others as an object. These nude women on paintings are a reaffirmation for men that there is someone more inferior than them, as Berger explains about previous centuries paintings. Thus, women are painted as trophies, responsible for vanity and guilty of pleasure. These and some other messages that harm women have been carried down for generations and perpetuated a system of oppression.

In conclusion, the power on seeing and/or being seen by others, in addition to gender, creates entitlements for men while disenfranchising and objectifying women. This is reflected on visual media where patriarchy is promulgated and perpetuated. Thus, in a world that strives for gender and race equality, it is essential to approach media with an "oppositional gaze", as Hooks invites us; recognize the "male gaze", as Mulvey states; and acknowledge that this behavior has been perpetuated by media as far back as the beginning of the common era, as Berger affirms.

works cited:

Bell Hooks. In Black Looks: race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972. 

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. NY: Oxford UP, 1999.