On Ways Of Seeing/Viewing

Widespread sexism series from UN Women

The male gaze is not merely about how men look at women. According to Berger: “…men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.” (Berger, 47) In this case the male gaze is not only about how men look at women. The male gaze is also within every woman, as the way she looks, perceives, and judges herself is as a man would look, perceive, and judge her.  

Berger’s male gaze is pervasive in popular culture as I have encountered this gaze firsthand. When I dress up and look in the mirror I judge myself as a man would judge me. If I think I look attractive, I subconsciously think that men will find me attractive and therefore look at me. This gaze is damaging as women are basing their appearance and therefore their self- worth on the idea of what men will think of them rather than feeling comfortable and confident in one’s own skin. 

On the other hand, the oppositional gaze has formed because  “…black female spectators have had to develop looking relations within a cinematic context that constructs our presence as absence, that denies the “body” of the black female so as to perpetuate white supremacy and with it a phallocentric spectatorship where the woman to be looked at and desired is “white.”” (Hooks, 118) In this idea, Hooks asserts that black females do not associate themselves with the white women in films that are subjected to the male gaze. Rather, they feel virtually absent from this category and are able to separate themselves from it.

However, Hook further states: “Even when representations of black women were present in film, our

Imitation of Life (1959)

bodies and being were there to serve – to enhance and maintain white womanhood as object of the phallocentric gaze.” (Hooks, 119)  A prime example of this representation is in the 1959 film, Imitation of Life where Annie Johnson (a homeless black widow) and her daughter becomes a housekeeper for Lora Meredith (a white aspiring actress) and her young daughter. Though the film tries to imply that the two mothers form some kind of bond, the stronger message is that Annie Johnson is only there to maintain and reproduce Lora Meredith’s white womanhood as she breaks out into the acting industry and thus becomes an object of the phallocentric gaze. 

Even before reading these works, I have understood these concepts. That is why you will never find me posting up a picture of myself in a bikini on social networking sites. However, this male gaze poses serious problems. For example, let’s say I do want to post up a picture of myself in a bathing suit, then many would claim I’m doing it because I want attention from men. Even the argument that I’m posting it because I feel good about myself is technically rooted in the psychology that the surveyor in myself is a man. On the other hand, if I don’t post at all, then I’m still making that decision in accordance to the male gaze, as I don’t want to be viewed by men as easy. It seems that in all scenarios, the male gaze wins out. Thus, one could question where does women’s liberation actually come into play? When will women's minds matter more than the ideal body type?