Post 2: Male Gaze / Oppositional Gaze

     In order to understand the “male gaze”, I think it’s always best to break down the phrase into parts.  To my understanding the “gaze” can best be described as the power an individual or a group has over another individual or group. In regards to the male gaze, it can be defined as the sense of power a man has over women and the way in which women are objectified in different forms of media in order to cater to the predominant male audience. This concept of the male gaze in film and other forms of media is created due to the notion that the individual behind the lens is a white male and anything captured is for the pleasure of this male.

    
      The male gaze can be seen in ads targeted towards men in which women are used to sell whichever product and almost always either provocatively dressed or naked.A good example would be the Calvin Klein ad for their men's cologne in which all the woman featured in the ads are naked and the only view of the product is a small bottle of the cologne.

   

   

   The male gaze can be identified in different forms of media such as in films or in ads. In film, the male gaze is the way in which the shot of a woman is taken which displays the women as sexual objects and this women “holds the look, plays to, and signifies male desire”( Laura Mulvey, 837). An example of this would be the Baywatch Intro  in which the female lifeguards are running around the beach while the camera lingers on their bodies.

   The male gaze had created an issue in which woman are constantly watching themselves , how they act in public settings, and even how they present themselves in front of other women. As John Berger states in "Ways of Seeing", a women has to constantly survey herself and is always followed by the image of her self (Berger 46). She is continuously watching herself in all action in order to pacify men because it is of "crucial importance" and is considered a success in her life. The way a woman walks , talks, and dresses is all for the sole benefit of the males eyes. Berger also states that appearance is of crucial importance because appearance and a woman's actions is the determining factor in how a woman will be treated by a man.

    Like the male gaze, the oppositional gaze is another form of power but its used as a form of resistance. The oppositional gaze is meant to be a form of rebellion, to question and interrogate the gaze created by the phallocentric white agency. Bell Hooks wanted black female spectators to look beyond the screen, to refuse the acceptance of stereotypes, and to create their own oppositional gaze by critiquing the media they were exposed to. This type of resistance starts with the realization of the misrepresentation of black female spectators in film and television. In these forms of media black females had to deal with an absence of black female  bodies in order preserve white supremacy and a "phallocentric spectatorship" where the women that is desired is white (Hook 118). Even when black women were present in film , it was mostly there to serve and to enhance the beauty and desire of white womanhood.

    
    The acknowledgement of these different systems of power have allowed me to take notice of a problem in our society that I never actually realized existed. Learning of the male gaze has allowed me to take note of how women, including myself, treat themselves and are treated by others. While learning of the oppositional gaze has made me realize that there are ways to go against the male gaze such as critiquing the media that we are exposed to and creating our own alternative media or text in which we can be properly represented in.

                                                           Work Cited

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

• hooks, bell (1992) Black Looks: Race and Representation, Chapter 7 The Oppositional Gaze

• Mulvey, Laura (1975)  “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism