Who's Vision's , Who's Fantasy.. Are we seeing?

I want to start off by explaining the male gaze from a male's perspective, that is the explanation from Bergen in the Ways of Seeing “In the art-form of the European nude the painters and spectator-owners were usually men and the persons treated as objects, usually women” (Berger 63). He goes on and says “Women are depicted in a quite different way from men-not because the feminine is different from the masculine- but because the “ideal” spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (Bergen 64).  In these terms, it is quite obvious what the male gaze is, to simplify, the male gaze is a pleasurable look from a man onto a woman where she is no longer a conscious being but an object to be seen in the most flattered way. This male gaze is not natural, this idea is not genetically encoded; instead this idea of the male gaze was designed.  According to Mulvey in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema... film also designed this code and it was designed to maintain patriarchal order, "Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order" (835).

Today can we say that this male gaze still runs true? Are females still objects of viewing pleasure in the media???

This ad was taken from http://itsguycode.com/guycode/526-old-ads-that-degraded-women.html

Of course, and in the era, where sexual visuals are used to sell everything, some advertisers have sunk so low to objectifying a female child.  This ad is always disturbing to me.  How far will this male gaze go to keep females objectified? Whether this is a digitally produced image, the image still stands, "innocence is sexier than you think."  This young girl looks no older than 7 years old and yet "her image is designed to flatter him" (Berger 64).  Mulvey also states "The magic of the Hollywood style at its best......from its skilled and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure" (835).  Simply put, this is by no means a Hollywood image although some can argue it is, the point being, this is skillfully a satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure. And welcome ladies and gentlemen to the WORLD of the MALE GAZE.

Bergen discusses the traditions in European oil painting that carry on the ideas of women objectivity and its lasting effect today (63).  It is therefore not surprising how this is the dominant form of vision in popular culture.  To make this more easier to understand, the person producing, the person projecting, the person writing, the person directing and the person holding the camera is MALE 90% of the time.  I have experience in the urban eye candy modeling industry and these ideas are very prevalent.  I have been in photo-shoots where I was told to make certain facial expresses and gestures to appease the MEN. I was told to pretend that someone was staring at me and to give them a naughty look in return.

  The person holding the camera was male and the intended audience is male so the dominant viewpoint is from a males perspective, men want to see what is flattering to them. If we are constantly dominated with a one dimensional vision, the ending product will be one dimensional. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Bell Hooks in the The Oppositional Gaze does an amazing job with  including women of color in the fight for equal representation in the media, "Conventional representations of black women have done violence to the image" (120). So what exactly is this Oppositional GAZE?? and why did it develop?? According to Hooks, the oppositional gaze, is a look and gesture of resistance (116).  She digs further in explaining the oppositional gaze  as look as a "critical gaze", she says "one learns to look a certain way in order to resist"(116).  Resist what?? According to Hooks, to resist the of negation of black representation  in media (118).

She goes on to say  when black women did appear on scene, they were there to represent "white womanhood as object of the phallocentric gaze"(119).  When woman of color were present in the early films, we were unfairly represented and it is fair to say, they still are wrongfully represented.  Hooks gives us an example when discussing Julie Burchill commentary on Girls on Film, "Tallulah Bankhead complimented her on the paleness of her skin and the non-NEGROIDNESS of her features" (119).

So what does this all mean? I understood in Media 180, the structure of mass media in the horrible portrayal and subjection of women especially in movies and music videos.  For me personally, it is extremely upsetting and in someways I feel helpless.  However, I believe my own little acts of resistance and acts from all women will one day balance the representation and we will no longer be ignored and objected to the MALE GAZE.

Shay.

Take a Look

           A gaze, in the simplest form, is defined as looking steadily or attentively. Harmless enough. From this basic concept, the idea of the male gaze has evolved as the notion that there is not one uniform view of the world; more specifically for our purposes, of the world of media and specifically film. Instead of a uniform view, we view the world through a male gaze, because that is what the world itself presents to us. It is not necessarily that we ourselves have been trained to view certain things, but that the world of the media has chosen one specific path to portray the world through, and this path is the male gaze through which there is a disparity between the significance and relevance of men and women.

As John Berger puts it simply, the male gaze can be described as the concept that: “men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at… The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object… of vision: a sight” (Berger, 47). I have the most difficulty with the second part of this argument. I guess that the idea that “men look at women” doesn’t seem unusual at all to me because from what I know, that is the way it has always been: men as predator and women as prey, putting it in rough terms. It is not that I approve of this formula but more that I have accepted it as the customary way of how things are: “men look at women.” But what I truly have a problem with, and what actually truly captures the essence of the male gaze, is that women, too, watch themselves, “the surveyor of woman in herself is male.” So not only are men looking at women, but women are also looking at women as male, through a male’s eyes, with a male gaze.

            The real problem, of course, is never simply because of the act of looking. The implications of the male gaze are that women are looked as objects of attraction, as selling points and works of art. Flattering? Not at all. This puts women in the position of an unceasing awareness of their appearance, because after all, that is what holds their value, according to the male gaze. Thus, as Laura Mulvey puts it in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” “woman stands in patriarchal culture as signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his phantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning.” (Mulvey, 834). That last part really encapsulates the perverted inequality behind the concept of the male gaze, that woman is “bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning.” Taking this a step further, the meaning that is being bared is not only made but also defined by men; so she doesn’t make meaning or interprets it, but simply wears the meaning that man clothes her with. This is regarding the woman are surveyed, and when we think of the woman as surveyor, she is also looking at the surveyed through the goggles that man has created for her.

            Running with the concept of goggles, Bell Hooks in The Oppositional gaze, demonstrates that we are wearing more than the pair that silences women as bearing any innate meaning. Maybe the idea of filters is more adequate than goggles, and fits a bit better. Where Berger and Mulvey are discussing the male gaze as, say, a blue filter, that allows the viewer to view only as a male, Hooks adds to that image a white filter that focuses not only on the absence of women but specifically black women. This second filter is what creates the need for the oppositional gaze. The oppositional gaze puts up a fight against the claim that film is not only encouraging and advocating a patriarchal world, but a white supremacist world as well. As she puts it in “The Oppositional Gaze,” “to stare at the television, or mainstream movies, to engage its images, was to engage its negation of black representation…it was the oppositional black gaze that responded.

            The male gaze is grounded on the concept that, as Mulvey puts it, “pleasure [arises] in using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight” (Mulvey, 836-837). It is exactly for this reason that the male gaze is a pervasive form of vision in popular culture. We like to look; not just men but people in general are visual. The difference is that men, for the most part, get to choose what the media will show and what will eventually land before our eyes. It is for this reason that women are so thoroughly and really unnervingly objectified in the media. And since woman is both surveyed and surveyor, she takes this depiction of what men consider adequate, and goes through endless struggles to achieve it. In this way, she is never good enough. In my opinion, the worst part of this, as I alluded to in the beginning, is that women do this to themselves. They cannot liberate themselves of this blue filter in order see the reality of the big picture. So they judge not only themselves harshly but in an anguish of inadequacy and incompetence, judge other women even more harshly. There is a limited amount of action we can take over the movie that is being shown, but just like with the disposable glasses given out in 3D movies, we can choose to remove these filters constantly covering our eyes and find the truth; which is honestly never further than where we stand.

Group 2: Women as the Audience

“Advertisers are aware of their role and do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people” (129, Kilbourne). Growing up we look to the media as a point of reference, to gauge where we stand in the context of society. Advertisers will push the envelope, meandering the lines of sexism and stereotypes, for their ultimate agenda: money. 

These advertisements, as well female portrayals in soap operas, instill the idea that “what you see is what you should be.” Douglas states: “…we’d rather have a root canal than appear In public in a bathing suit…Our collective history of interacting with and being shaped by the media mass has engendered in many women a kind of cultural identity crisis. We are ambivalent toward femininity on the one hand and feminist on the other.” One example can be seen in the controversial advertisements of Dr. Pepper for their 10 calorie soda which triumphantly closes with a caption that reads, “Not for Women.” Additionally, when it comes to soap operas, women are the target audience. The female characters of these shows take on multiple roles, from the empowered, independent woman, to the conniving murderer, to the helpless damsel in distress. This ties us back to Douglas’ concept of the schizophrenic, where a woman is left confused with multiple personas due to the constant bombardment of mixed messages.

https://art8amby.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/kim-kardashian-for-cosmopolitan-uk-may-2011/

- Pablo Dominguez, Shira Benhamou, Queenie Chen

Reflexion of Society

The power of a male gaze is nicely expressed in Berger’s essay “Ways of Seeing “ and his quote “A man’s presence suggest what he is capable of doing to you and for you “. This makes men an unmistakable leaders of the society. Their main strength in physical sense, ability to move the unmovable ,to build the unbuildable , creates unconsciously in woman the responsibility to nurture their wish and their look. In addition ,” Men act and women appear”, Berger shows women’s role of a amusement in order to motivate and inspire man who creates the world .

But is it world built just by the appearances of building and not by their inner world and meaning? Is it enough to just have a plant without the watering it ? Does the human being can exist by separation of a body and soul? So, how can we compare the physical strength of man with appearances of a women ?! Very easy!

That is all happening in front of the hidden -written books ,which holds the inner beauty of human beings and society. Unfortunately, the importance of book is replaced by the fast pace of a living. Reading the books, having silent and rich moment within yourself, require more effort than watching the materialistic world.

Even though ,people indulge book,still the impact of the media ,through advertising ,movies, shows and posters , is attacking everywhere.Then ,little by little , power of media is the new leader of society. Also the man wants to be the society’s best soldier ,the bravest man ,because of his prize. As Laura Malvey said:” In contrast to woman as icon ,the active male figure ( the ego ideal of the identification process) demands a three-dimensional space corresponding to that of the mirror recognition in which the alienated subject internalized his own representation of this imaginary existence”.

His role is even more glorified in the screen ,thus his desire and expectations grow more toward woman.Woman can respond to that ,since she is a big admirer of the beauty on the screen .

On the other hand people who can not find their lives on the screen or if they are the victim of laugh ,they creates the oppositional gaze. In Bell Hook’s essay we can see” identification can only be made through recognition ,and all recognition is itself an implicit confirmation of the ideology of the status quo”( Anne Friedberg)For instance the black woman were the one who brought up the awareness of devil side of society – media.Their double baggage of absence , by black and white males and by white female as could develop the sharp eye about discrimination of women in general.That opositional gaze ,daring to look back and whoever the person choose to look , brings out the causes of woman constant self observation which ,by knowing them ,makes the easier path toward living as well the inner world of ours.

Ways of seeing, viewing, by Ian Jensen

    
     The male gaze describes the concept presented in Jim Berger’s Ways of Seeing as “Men look at Women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Her identity is split in two. Herself and the physical self as observed. If she was standing behind a photo of herself she will see that her image, not herself is being judged. Society’s judgment of this image is her definition and it’s beauty defines her value. As in Jim Berger’s reference to renaissance paintings the image of the female “nude” creates an object to be gazed upon as a fantasy and possession of the owner/viewer.

http://www.nme.com/

The above example of a modern painting illustrating the same aspects of what John Berger describes. She is front facing nude, toward the spectator. The spectator relates with the male image as his fantasy of encroaching upon the nude woman, gazing at her, and soon to be his sexual posession.

     The man who owns this image of a nude creates the sense of owning a woman as if owning a painting. Berger shows how oil paintings owned and painted by men deflects the objectification into vanity of the subject by giving her a mirror to look at. It’s like saying she (the image) caused man (the owner) to objectify women.

http://venusvision.com/

     As a patriarchal society the image of women as an object but more as a possession is pervasive in magazines, movies, books, and television and therefore subjugates women under men. As Berger says, “This unequal relationship is so deeply embedded in our culture that it still structures the consciousness of many women.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2047163/Matthew-Williamson-British-designer-Alexander-McQueens-crown.html

     

     Bell Hooks describes the oppositional gaze as not identifying with the white women or male character types in film but taking a critical analysis of the films in opposition to these black female stereotypes. Questioning many black women and their experience in film Hooks reveals that many black women held an oppositional gaze to these obviously unrealistic females stereotypes designed to give a negative contrast to the other characters. Bell Hooks describes her observation of the black female characters in film as, “She was bitch-nag. She was there to soften images of black men, to make them seem vulnerable, easygoing, funny, and unthreatening to a white audience….Scapegoated on all sides. She was not us.”

http://www.tylerperry.com/

http://www.blacktoptens.com/?p=3292

     The ways these images are used to represent the female gender in society is pervasive. They are stereotypical representations of this repetitive limited role used in media. These images are all designed to sell a product to as many people as possible. To appeal to a base stereotype appeals to a base intelligence. I'm not either so I can't relate to it or even say it's true but I can understand the author’s perspectives. These images are exaggerations of reality. To show a woman as a sexual object is to appeal to a base use of her gender as a man can be shown as a financial, money and success pursuing physical utility. These exaggerations are meant to be sold and the authors know they sell much more successfully than the real, sensitive or unexaggerated.

Male Gaze

            We live in a society in which a women’s appearance means everything. They must look their best because they are constantly being judged on their physical appearance. When an attractive woman is walking down the street, she might catch the attention of “Male Gazers,” who see her not as a person but rather a sexual object. According to Berger “Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated.” (pg 46) 

The male gaze creates that object and most of the time can be treated as being hostlie towards a female. 

From the popular t.v show "Mad Men"

Women have always been seen as something of male desire and we have seen this throughout the media. For example when you watch a car commercial and they seem to always describe the vehicle as they would a female, “Sleek lines, curves, and such. Advertising is generally designed to gain the attention of one audience and that’s the male population. The male glaze creates dominance and separates genders, the male being active and the female being passive. Laura Mulvey states “women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motiff of erotic spectacle: From pin-ups to strip-tease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire.”(pg 838)  We have seen this in cinema as well; in which woman are being decremented by Hollywood’s desire to perceive them as objects. Personally a lot of romantic comedies portray women as being less then males. Movies in which there either a prostitute or love stuck over a guy that didn’t want them before but wants them now.  It's created by the individuals who control media's like film and television, mostly white males because it makes profit. 

Even though most males might not see looking at females bad, it does create a fear in the minds of the females being watched, especially when she doesn't want to be looked at as being this object. 

Model "Kate Upton" 

“the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the women is designed to flatter him.”(Berger 64) 

The male glaze despite being detrmental also doesn't focus on all women. It excludes women of color from the equation and only see's "white," as being the dominant desire. It creates racism and in the words of author bell hooks, it creates the oppositional gaze. The oppositional gaze is absence of black female presence, or the insertion of violating representation in mass media. She talks about the longing to look, a rebellious desire for blacks, especially black females that weren't represented and subjected to white supremacy in film and television. "The "Gaze" has been and it a site of resistance for colonized black people people globally." (Hooks pg. 116) Even so, cienma didn't represented black-women hood in the appropriate light, we often see this in race type movies, in which black directors try to make create the actuallitly of life through a black perspective but often losses mass appeal. For example when we were talking in class about Spike Lee's style of film verse Tyler Perry's, one is trying to create a voice while the other is creating profit. Often playing exposing the sterotypes of blacks as white cinema does. "looking at films with an oppositional gaze, black women were able to critically assess the cinema's construction of white womanhood as object of phallocentric gaze and choose not to identify with either the victim or the perpetrator."(Hooks pg. 122)

Gazing...

        I agree that "the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man".(Berger, pg.45) The male gaze is the way a man sees, watches and views a woman and therefor woman must exude how she wants to be viewed. The male gaze absorbs what we wear, how we stand, how we talk and walk. It is an overall observation of the female."Men look at woman" (Berger, pg.47) The gaze for example, will help a man decide his approach to the female in his gaze and his opening line of discussion with her. The gaze turns a female into an object of desire, and object to be studied by the male eye. At the same time the gaze also forces the female to view herself as an object as well. "-and most particularly an object of of vision: a sight."(Berger, pg.47)
     The gaze is a pervasive form of vision in popular culture because it has never died out. It was never just a fad, faze or stage in history. Till this very day the male gaze is capable of spreading widely through out popular culture because no matter where your from, what language you speak, or of your religious and or political beliefs, your still one of two things; a man or a woman. Before any other stipulation separates one from another the sex of an individual does.
    The way the media markets its products has much to do with the male gaze. It determines what direction they want to go in, even for female products. The model, her wardrobe, her behavior and or positioning in the ad one or commercial all appeals to the male gaze. Since he is the actor, the aggressor the media wants to appeal to his desires and his pockets. The woman always appears to be perfect and radiant whether the ad is for beer, make up, shampoo, cigarettes, furniture or cars and to feel that sense if power the men buy. Advertisement owes a lot to the male gaze.
    The oppositional gaze is a defiant, rebellious desire to stare back. The oppositional gaze implies that one is superior to the other. The oppositional gaze helps an oppressed one take back some control from his dominator. For example, a child staring right into the eye of a mother while being scorned is a defiant gesture.The child is seen as trying to have control over the situation. The gaze asserts a sense of power. According to Hooks, the oppositional gaze developed as a reaction to times of slavery. From being punished and some killed for looking the white man in the eye. To know our place we were forced to be little our selves by looking down when speaking. Thats why the oppositional gaze comes from one  wanting to show resistance.
    I have through these readings have become aware of my place int the world of "the male gaze". The media along with the readings has opened my eyes to the fact that I am viewed as an object. Yet, deep down I am already aware. It has made me aware that I do leave my house as the object I want to be seen as and are constantly evaluating my presence. Will I do it less now that I'm aware? That answer I do not know at the moment. Woman do do want to be admired for there looks and or beauty but the media must understand that thats not all we want to be admired for. There is much that lies beneath how we appear to the male eye. I can definitely identify with the oppositional gaze. I realized that I contain the oppositional gaze but not in the sense of being defiant but in the sense of commanding attention and respect.

Scopophilia "love of looking"

Women are constantly under the supervision of the male gaze. This gaze has been deeply embedded in our minds that we become unaware of our own subconscious behaviors in the society. One of many is the need to look in the mirror to see how we look and/or whether we are “presentable” to others. In John Berger’s “Ways of seeing,” he talks about the ideology in which women beings a “sight” to the rest of the society, in particular, to men. “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female” (46). Women are being looked at, everyday, everywhere. There are no instances where a woman is not conscious of her own image. After all, places such as the salon exist so that women can go and make herself look better, prettier, more beautiful because every woman has something she could improve. There are numerous magazines and TV commercials that advertise the need to get this or change that. Whether we like it or not, women are also being judged solely on their image.

An interesting factor in Berger’s reading is the way he differentiates nakedness and nudity. “She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her…naked is simply to be without clothes, whereas nude is a form of art” (53). A woman thus becomes an object in the eyes of the artist because she is on display both for the men in the room and for the spectators observing the art –which is her naked body. It is also ironic that the presence of a mirror equals vanity on the female nude in the European paintings during the Renaissance period, in which the female is looking at herself being looked at, turning her into the “villain.”

(This ad is the perfect representation of women in a male dominate society)

On the contrary, there is absolutely no evident for the presence of black women both in paintings and in movies, “mass media was a system of knowledge and power reproducing and maintaining white supremacy” (Bell Hooks 117). Not only are black stereotypes seen on comedy television shows such as “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the whole program is a misrepresentation of black people as a whole. Black women are hidden behind the society as if they do not coexist with white women, “[black women] never went to movies expecting to see compelling representations of black femaleness…to have white women film stars to be ultra-white was a cinematic practice that sought to maintain a distance, a separation between that image and the black female Other; it was a way to perpetuate white supremacy” (119). Many black women explained that they go to movies just to get away from the real world and in order to enjoy the film; they had to close out their emotions and feelings towards sexism and racism.

In Laura Mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she focuses on woman as an image and man as the bearer of the look, “in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female” (837). Females have always been the ones who are conscious of the way they look, while the males are the ones active looking. In many cases, scopophilia, in which the active looker feels pleasure in looking at another person as an erotic object (843), can be extremely dangerous which can also leads to stalking and infatuation. Many predators prey on beautiful women silently, yet deadly. A few weeks ago, I read an article in the post about a murder of female dancer who was killed by a serious sex offender who has been secretly collecting photos of women’s behind for years.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/predator_chilling_clues_7hO6QF3YE7OPsoANVZUSbN


Throughout history of film productions, women have been portrayed as sexual objects on display for the desires of men, “traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen” (Mulvey 838). Men cannot face the burden of sexual objectification, which correlates directly with their high “manly” egos. Any action or presence of a strong female character either on or off screen is presented as a threat to the men, she is automatically considered “masculine” and “unacceptable.” Mulvey strongly believes that the only way obvious reasoning behind this huge gap is the presence of the male phallus and in order to reach a type of equally, the male must go through castration, “the meaning of woman is sexual difference, the absence of the penis as visually ascertainable, the material evidence on which based the castration complex essential for organization of entrance to the symbolic order and the law of the father” (840). However, I don’t support Mulvey’s extremist belief on castration because biologically females and males are made differently and to many degrees not every woman wants to strive for that same equality as men. They do not want to be a man, they simply just wish they can be themselves without fearing or present a type of threat to the “dominant” male.

After reading and touching upon the subject of the "male gaze," I find it extremely interesting that although we "live" under the male gaze, there are hardly any women that I know of, including myself, brings up this awareness. It has become such a social norm that if I do not talk about it, I do not really think about it. Everyday women "fix" themselves in front of the mirror to make sure they look nice and presentable, and it has become a routine. Then there are women who "act" out on the male gaze even more by wearing overly exposed clothing that attracts more looks. Ironically, sometimes, they wonder why people are staring at them.

Sources: 

Berger, John, "Ways of Seeing" 1972.

Hooks, Bell, " The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectors,"  Black Looks: Race and Representation, South End Press, 1992.

Mulvey, Laura, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," 1975

The Male Gaze and The Oppositional Gaze

The male gaze is evaluative and intrusive. It is alive and powerful, integrated as a part of our society’s values. As women we never fully escape it. The male gaze objectifies women and makes us into possessions, as John Berger showed in his article that discussed the history of oil paintings, in particular European ones. Powerful men had paintings of naked women. These paintings were bought and then possessed, reflecting women's actual position in society.  Similarly today, women are on display in multiple outlets of media from magazines to tv ads to exploitative films. From our readings of Mulvey and Berger I have gotten a heightened awareness of this social construction that, even though I knew it existed, I didn't actively think about.         

             John Berger writes, "A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself." page 46 This is a phrase I connect to. I remember the moment when I went from not being aware that I could at any time be evaluated, to realizing that there was a value put on my appearance. When I was in high school I found out from my boyfriend at the time that the reason he became interested in me was because his class had played a poker game in order to determine who would date me. This was done as a joke on my brother, who was in the class but did not participate in the "poker-game. I had no idea that they all knew who I was, much less how I looked which was apparently why I was picked. In fact they they had been judging all the little sisters of their classmates. I became an object and even if the boy I got together with did not win the "game" I felt weird and actually everything but flattered. Instead I became increasingly aware of how I presented myself and acted because I was aware that at any moment I  could be evaluated.

            Mulvey writes in "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" that "pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female". This ties into John Berger's statement of "men act and women appear". The words active/act in comparison to passive/appear are significant. There is power in a man while a woman is seen as flowing and airy and not having a voice. Mulvey also says "The determining male gaze projects it's phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly." Although this is said about film, which is a form of media, I feel this is very true when looking at advertisements and magazines. In ads and in representations of almost everything out there, the female body is represented not by a true to life image but an ideal fantasy that fits social norms. It's interesting to note that men run most of the companies producing these images. So its not surprising that they try and determine how we are supposed to look and create their own ideal woman.

Much like in the European Oil paintings although there is a male in the ad the woman is turning her attention to the spectator. As to signify that you can have this body. In this case it is directed for both men and females, they can both posses that body. This particular ad is for the gym Equinox.

Calvin Klein Jeans ad. These ads have been seen all over new York where over-sexualized women are supposed to inspire us to buy the jeans that have hardly made it into the picture.

Its very hard for me as a Swedish person living in America for only 3 years to culturally relate to the oppositional gaze in terms of African Americans. I grew up in a society that in many ways did not expose me to any kinds of differences. I understood the readings from a foreigners perspective. I understand about being judged by how you look racially, but my view comes from a person thrust from a historically homogenous society into the melting pot of America. This made me realize that the oppositional gaze has a lot to do with cultural background, nationality and race. I can relate as a woman but have difficulty with cultural context of the African American experience.

Bell Hooks points out how the oppositional gaze developed as resistance to the controlled parameters that have through centuries been put on the right to gaze, from times of slavery to present era. The gaze allows those who are oppressed to actively look at their surroundings and society with power. And with the gaze comes the right to make up your own mind and to actively question ideas and social values. Hooks writes: "Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality" and "There is power in looking". These two quotes stood out to me because they signify the essence of the gaze. It becomes an active way to resist the oppression of the society.

            As mentioned in the class discussion, the restrictions on African-American women are two-fold. Not only are they women living in a male driven society, they also have society's racial values layered on top of it. Hooks turns our attention to the cinema and the lack of symbols of African-American womanhood in particularly the early movies. Hooks writes "Black female spectators have had to develop looking relations within a cinematic context that constructs our presence as absence, that denying the 'body' of the black female so as to perpetuate white supremacy" and "where the woman to be looked at and desired is 'white'". The society is thereby stripping these women twice, first taking away any representation or significant image for them to relate to as well as then telling them and society at large that women have to fit a certain skin color to be desired. It leaves these women without an outlet or identity and a right to be part of society. Hooks used the word "absence", that they simply were not there and if they were it really wasn't as a true depiction of their lives and value.

The Male Gaze and Oppositional Gaze

The term male gaze is described as the way of how heterosexual men look at women as an object, that the relationship between men and women are asymmetric; men often feel they have greater power than women, and their masculinity always threatens the femininity. For example, men would never be afraid of women; but females would be scared that the males might attack them or rape them.

According to John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, he stated the idea that men look at women before treating them. In other words, this means that a woman’s appearance determines the way that men treats her. “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” (Berger, 47). From his words, he clearly explained that women are acting like objects for men to be viewed at, women are aware that they are being viewed by the men, therefore women attempted to behave in good manners and tried to attract attentions from the opposite sex.  In addition, Berger addressed the subject of vanity. In European oil paintings, women are portraying in nakedness and are viewed by men. Male enjoy looking at female nudity, but directly looking will make masculinity seem to be too aggressive; by putting a mirror in a woman’s hand, “make the woman connive in treating herself as, first and foremost, a sight” (Berger, 51). When a woman looks at herself through a mirror is called Vanity, that she is treating herself as an object to be viewed, and this allows the spectators (males) to penalize female by looking at herself, not the spectators’ fault by looking at nudity.

The male gaze becomes a pervasive form of vision in popular culture due to media depiction. As addressed in Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, she discusses various issues such as spectatorship that occur while viewing a film.  Women are viewed as the image on screens whose purpose is to fulfill men’s desire. “Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motiff of erotic spectacle…she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire” (Mulvey, 837).  In other words, she is saying that women act as images; they dress beautifully in order to attract men’s attention, to satisfy the male’s desire of sexuality. We do see men and women act in different roles upon films; men portray as active and women portray as passive in the narrative structure. The actives will carry the plot, leading the story; and the passives often there to make the men feel powerful, they are never be able to be a representative within the role of gaze. For example, the video shown below demonstrates the idea of active and passive gender roles. The male characters in Disney films are always illustrate as heroes, usually two males fight with each other to save the female character. The purpose of the female to be onscreen is to display her weakness and inability to protect herself, thus helping to strengthen the masculinity in films.

According to Bell Hooks’ “The Oppositional Gaze”, the term oppositional gaze refers to the challenges color people have towards the white supremacy. In male gaze, the spectators are all considered as whites, there are no color people involved, they are not permitted to gaze. As Hooks addressed in her article, the oppositional gaze developed in order to change their lives, “not only will I stare. I want my look to changed reality” (Hooks, 116). In the black male gaze, women wanted to participate in the mainstream media, identifying themselves as being white women; however, this is very difficult. “Much feminist film criticism disallows the possibility of a theoretical dialogue that might include black women’s voices” (Hooks, 125). In order to change the gaze is very difficult, that during that era of time, only white women considered as in the women hood, colored females still have a very challenging way to identify themselves as into the gaze.

After reading all these three articles, I think that the male gaze gives too much pressure for women, that women compete for their beauty. For instance, whenever a woman walks down the street, I think she would liked to dressed up as pretty as she can be, and if any man looks back at her, that woman will feel very happy like she achieves something important in her life. To my own life, I follow the same thing as what other women did. I do put on make-ups sometimes when I go out, and I do try to lose weight like all other girls. I think this is like a “social norm” which every woman will follow throughout her life, to be beautiful and being the surveyed by the male gaze is her success in life.

Berger, John, "Ways of Seeing" 1972.

Mulvey, Laura, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," 1975

Hooks, Bell, " The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectors,"  Black Looks: Race and Representation, South End Press, 1992.

The Gazes

1.) To help define the male gaze, it might be helpful to note the existence of a "gaze" in general. When you look at something, an object, you are seeing more than just the thing itself. Built into this gaze is the relation between the thing and yourself.This is most obviously exemplified in art and media, and who the intended viewer is. The 'ideal' spectator is always assumed to be male, and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him. (Berger, 64) The male gaze is an understanding that whatever is being regarded is from this status quo. It is blatantly illustrated in Rolling Stone's cover pictures of featured entertainment figures:



(image source: Sociological Images)


I think part of the reason it is so pervasive in popular culture, is because it is pervasive within ourselves. Girls, most critically in adolescence, are taught by the male gaze of the media what it is to be a woman, and thus perform it accordingly and very often unquestioningly. To have this way of seeing ourselves impressed upon us at such a formative period of our lives, makes the binary oppression internalized. Berger says, "This unequal relationship is so deeply embedded in our culture that it still structures the consciousness of many women. They do to themselves what men do to them. They survey, like men, their own femininity." (p.63)

The sheer repetition of images of women within the male gaze in popular culture is impossible to ignore, and overwhelming to combat. Many women respond to this insurmountable inequality by making a "patriarchal bargain." Professor Lisa Wade, from Occidental College, describes it as: a decision to accept gender rules that disadvantage women in exchange for whatever power one can wrest from the system. It is an individual strategy designed to manipulate the system to one’s best advantage, but one that leaves the system itself intact. A textbook example of this is the celebrity of Kim Kardashian:




2.) The "oppositional gaze" is a form of critical spectatorship that challenges the male gaze that replicates systems of gender, racial, sexual, and socioleconomic oppression. Bell Hooks says, "Even in the worst circumstances of domination, the ability to manipulate one's gaze in the face of structures of domination that would contain it, opens up the possibility of agency."(pg 116) Spaces of agency exist [for black people], wherein we cn both interrogate the gaze of the Other but also look back, and at one another, naming what we see. (Hooks, 116) Politicizing "looking" relations in all structures of domination is important in deconstructing larger cultural attitudes and to move towards (conservatively) less oppression and (hopefully) shifting cultural paradigms over time.




These images from a clothing catalog can be evaluated with an oppositional gaze. The white woman is modeling a sweater, but why is the woman of color not also? She is basically a prop in these photos, which is degrading.


3.) Women viewers have, over the last decade, expressed growing displeasure over their depiction as subjects whose well-being depends on how men see them. One of the biggest struggles has been the realization that much of a woman's self conception is from the perspective of men, and how deeply we have internalized that viewpoint. I think (or rather know)that many women do not consciously understand that their self surveillance is, much like an internal monologue can be in another's voice, not their own. A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself....she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself.(Berger, 47)The duality of our self consciousness is so familiar, that it is unnoticeable until we are implored to question and examine it. The power of the dominated to assert agency by claiming and culotivating "awareness" politicizes "looking" relations--one learns to look a certain way in order to resist. (Hooks, 116) I am not really sure how to survey myself purely from a female gaze. To envision myself without the default parameters I am used to applying. Can that exist?

A Powerful Look...

"Men look at women.  Women watch themselves being looked at"(Berger, 47). This quote has been on my mind ever since reading John Berger's, "Way of Seeing". I find myself on the subway thinking about it and low and behold, I look up and I am watching myself being looked at by a man. I found this very interesting and thought provoking. A gaze in general to me, is knowing that the same of how much you can view of others is no different than how much they can view of you. 

A male gaze is a male who gazes at the other, in this case, the other is a female. This gaze is in an objectifying manner. This gaze brings upon the idea that women want to be treated as something that men can look at. Berger talks about a painting that has a women and a male lover. He states, "But the woman's attention is very rarely directed towards him. Often she looks away from him or she looks out of the picture towards the one who considers himself her true lover-the spectator-owner"(56). This description of the painting points to how she is viewed, how she feels, and how she needs a stamp of approval from her lover. Along with the male gaze, in society we are brought up with our big brothers and fathers protecting us, telling us to be safe and not allowing us, women to feel any sense of empowerment of our gender since the day we were born. Men are "stronger" in ever sense, and women? What are we? 

In media, Laura Mulvey expresses that, "Although the film is really being shown, is there to be seen, conditions of screening and narrative conventions give the spectator an illusion of looking in on a private world"(836). This idea plays a role in the "male gaze". It gives a setting where we feel we can go outside of the cinema and while we gaze at others, we will get the same pleasure. Film may have opened up new doors to a level of  knowing more about the opposite sex in an overall private setting. women usually are portrayed in a sexual way to sell a product in an advertisement. This Berger King advertisement definitely grabs your attention right away, which I am sure was the point. Everything in this AD, from the words to the images don't leave anything up to imagination. 

Bell Hooks describes The Oppositional Gaze, from the perspective of a black feminist, where black women have a stereotypical representation in film. She explains that growing up they were told not to give direct looks at others. "Black looks, as they were constituted in the context of social movements for racial uplift, were interrogating gazes...black viewers of movies and television experienced visual pleasure in a context where looking was also about contestation and confrontation"(117). Media was and still is extremely powerful. Having shows on T.V. with all kinds of misrepresentations of race, sex as well as many other issues, gives everyone a way to make assumptions of those who are different than them.  

Equinox Advertisement. Their ads always gets me. Equinox is a gym, if I were to see this AD, I wouldn't think it was a gym. 

Whey Gaze

Every single adult has his or her own perspective of life, based on their culture, family, and childhood surroundings; witch actually frames his psychological conditions. This complex combination contributes a significant role in who he or she is, how they approach life, how they encounter others, and how they resent their selves in their world. It is feasible for a human being to be capable of refining what was interpreted above, although human being instincts and DNA is insurmountable to abstain.

C. Sections II. A and B have set out two contradictory aspects of the pleasurable structures of looking in the conventional cinematic situation. The first, scopophilic, arises from pleasure in using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight. The second, developed through narcissism and the constitution of the ego, comes from identification with the image seen. Thus, in film terms, one implies a separation of the erotic identity of the subject from the object on the screen (active scopophilia), the other demands identification of the ego with the object on the screen through the spectator's fascination with and recognition of his like. The first is a function of the sexual instincts, the second of ego libido. This dichotomy was crucial for Freud. Although he saw the two as interacting and overlaying each other, the tension between instinctual drives and self-preservation continues to be a dramatic polarisation in terms of pleasure.

III. Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look

A. 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 form which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. Woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire.

Laura Mulvey, "Visual and Other Pleasures and Narrative cinema" Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44


Before modern Media there was the Internet, T.V., Radio, Newspapers, books, and paintings. There was the Bible and the Church, who were the ones who dictated and structured life and morals of society. As centuries revolved, progress revolutionized in many varieties, although “European Renaissance Men” still dominate our culture. As a result of all these circumstances, we presently have unmitigated rebounds, and antagonistic rebounds as well. And one of those antagonistic rebounds is Oppositional Gaze.

"When most black people in the United States first had the opportunity to look at film and television, they did so fully aware that mass media was a system of knowledge and power reproducing and maintaining white supremacy."

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

Bell Hooks in this book has her definition of the gaze. "When thinking about black female spectators, I remember being punished as a child for staring, for those hard intense direct looks children would give grownups, looks that were seen as confrontational, as gestures of resistance, challenges to authority." As a child, hooks explained that the attempts made to repress black people’s right to gaze only produces a staggering desire to look, "an oppositional gaze." "When black women did appear they were servants for white women, or they were forced to pass as white."

Representing woman in common Media is horrible. Women are drowning in the whirlpool of Modern Media, which empresses with shamefulness “Everything for sale”.

"In trying to understand the media’s objectification of women and how it makes us feel, it can help to think of the camera lens as a white male eye. Have you noticed that the covers of women’s and men’s magazines are almost always female? The female stars of mainstream movies and TV shows not only look sexy but often behave in the kind of subservient, helpless way that many men find appealing. The camera eye is usually focused on women who look and act in a way that pleases men; men look (active), and women receive their gaze (passive). The media’s gaze is essentially a male gaze. "

 Laura Mulvey, "Visual and Other Pleasures" 1989

The "portrayal of woman and her beauty in such a position offers up the pleasure for the male spectator".

"The male gaze is an active and empowering look directed towards the other; for our purposes of discussion this other is the inferior female gender. This gaze provides males with the feelings of entitlement and ownership which eventually lead to their objectification of women".

Berger, John, "Ways of Seeing" 1972.

It is each individual’s choice to accommodate its own surrounding, and you have the ability of your personal conversion. As an adult, accommodating your surroundings is possible by taking a risk, and if every adult undertakes, and attempts to change his personal life and actions, the whole society would converse. As we know from history, killing the “King” and triumphant the "King is dead. Long live the King" is not a solution for us. Switching power of dictators would not change surroundings. We’re not looking just for a replacement; we’re looking for alteration in Ideology. Acknowledging the existing issue, and descrying the source and the background history of the problem, is the first step to achieve accommodation. This is the why this class is inspirational, and is endorsing me. As a parent, at a family level, it is important that I pass the message to my child, as future generation.

The Feminist Movement: A History in Pictures
http://youtu.be/UsMolaBBAMI