Post 2

Laura Mulvey defines in her article 'Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema' the male gaze as follows: "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) Although Mulvey focuses on the male gaze in the cinema, it is seen, heard and felt in every form of media that surrounds us. Women in the media are positioned as inactive and most of the time only there for the pleasure of the male viewers, their only function to sit still and be pretty. Within the narrative of the media object this position doesn't change often either. The manifestation of this lack of agency for female characters can often be seen in romantic comedies. The unhappy damsel in distress is pining for a guy to save her from her old ways and is there as an inactive character to be hit on. She swoons the moment when she gets some attention and they gallop off into the sunset. There are exceptions of course, but the narratives of most of the romantic films have this kind of storylines.                                
           Even when at first sight a female character has a sense of agency and as an active character, she is often characterized by a certain 'to-be-looked-at-ness'. It doesn't matter what the target audience of a media object is; even when targeted at women you can find the eroticizing of the female body. A perfect example of this is the glossy magazines in which half-naked women show clothes with only a shirt or a pants on. In my opinion this is just a poor excuse to show some skin and above all just a wasted opportunity to show people who maybe want to wear a whole outfit what to buy.                                                                                                                                                                                                            This concept of 'to-be-looked-at-ness' coincides with John Berger's notion of the surveyor and surveyed, which are both elements of the identity of women . In his book The Ways of Seeing he says the following: "She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life. "(Berger, 46) A woman has to watch how she looks, speaks and acts, because it all has to be appealing to the men who might be watching her.

         It isn't surprising that in this environment the oppositional gaze came to life. bell hooks defines this gaze as follows in her book Black Looks: Race and Representation: "I interrogated the work, cultivated a way to look past race and gender for aspects of content, form, language." It has developed out of pure necessity; to make a space so people are able to criticize cinema and if possible identify with characters. It gives you a new position as a viewer and allows you to see media objects in a different light. Although you can't change the content of the media, it is an alternative which gives you more agency as a viewer.                                             
        Personally I definitely get the notion that you can enjoy media objects if you 'don't look too deep'. It can be very liberating if you look past race and gender, and really try to identify with a character without limitations. Especially as a woman you are very limited to identify with characters otherwise. If you don't like the stereotypical 'feminine' music, books and hobbies of women the possibility is slim to none, which is why I usually take a step back and don't look to deep when I watch a movie. But if you do apply the oppositional gaze and don't look at gender and race, you can enjoy the movie and identify with an abundance of well-rounded male characters. It gives you the ability to not lose your identity for 90 minutes and enjoy the movie on this deeper level, which makes the experience way more enjoyable.

A genre that for me is also pretty problematic with your position as a woman is the superhero genre. The male hero is going to save the damsel in distress and save her from the great evil that is attacking her. After a massive fight he wins his girl back and all is well again. Even when there is a female superhero their bodies are sexualized in a most ridiculous way. The Hawkeye Initiative has a nice way of showing this in pictures like these:

Personally I think initiatives like this one are very effective in showing how women's bodies are treated and how it doesn't happen with men's bodies. It is a perfect tool to raise awareness of these differences.

Image Source
http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/

Bibliography
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Group. 1972.

Hooks, Bell. 'The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.' Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992: 115-31.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism :
Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44.