 |
"Girl at the Mirror" by Norman Rockwell
(my immediate thought when I saw this was,
"a women surveying herself") |
The male gaze, as described in the readings, is the ideal
spectator, for whom a work of art or media is created. The term was coined by
John Berger, who explained the theory of the male gaze as men acting while
women appear. In other words, men are
the active, important reactors to the world around them, while women are the
objects they are reacting to. Berger
writes, “men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch
themselves being looked at” (Berger, 47). Media and art reflect this idea, for example in Rockwell's famous painting "Girl in the Mirror."
The idea of the male gaze is pervasive in every form of
media that we are presented with.
Everything from literature to advertising in every form, it is often the
case that the male gaze is the ideal viewer of media. There are obvious examples of the male gaze
in over-sexualized depictions of women, like comic books, video games (the
women in games like Grand Theft Auto would not be able to stand up properly if
they had chests like that in reality) and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit
edition. However, the male gaze persists
in places that we may not necessarily question: like NFL cheerleaders and NBA
dancers (who make a disgustingly low amount per game), or the fact that all the
protagonists in Pixar films have a female/damsel in distress love
interest. And of course, the existence
of the Bechdel test, and the low standards that it requires, proves that women
have a very minute role in media, and when they do exist in movies and shows,
their existence if often centered around a man.
The foundations of the oppositional gaze are rooted in the
understanding of the patriarchal construct that men dominate everything in
society. This works in conjunction with
the male gaze. Women are responsible for
upholding the patriarchy by being passive, according to bell hooks. hooks also
adds the component of race to her definition of the oppositional gaze, which is
a term she developed to describe those “erased” by media, taking control by
staring back at the patriarchal gaze that tries to manipulate them. This gaze
developed as a reaction to the mainstream media minorities and women were
presented with. As a black woman, bell
hooks writes about how she does not see herself represented in media,
especially films.
Mulvey illustrates this in her example of the patriarchy’s
wide-ranged influence on female interactions in films in her analysis of A
Question of Silence. She writes, “the
eroticized interview ends not because either woman desires closure but because
–in an image of male intrusion that shatters female activity- a male guard
mistakenly enters the cell” (Mulvey, 108). This
is an example of the patriarchal dominance that has infiltrated media- an
exchange between two women cut short by the presence of a man. bell hooks
further illustrates the frustration caused by the male gaze/patriarchal gaze by
discussing the lack of African American women in films. “To experience pleasure, Miss Pauline had to
imagine herself transformed, turned into a white woman portrayed on the screen.
After watching movies, feeling the pleasure, she says, ‘But it made coming home
hard’” (hooks, 121).
This
misrepresentation or underrepresentation of minorities and women is the reason
for the reaction to the male gaze- an oppositional gaze. A gaze to stare back
at the oppressor and question the reasons why. I think personally coming to understand and accept these
structures that define and confine women is a necessary evil. In a way, it is a
frustrating process because it entails recognizing that almost or all media
around us was not made for me. I am never the first demographic that is thought
of when things are created. That is a tough realization to have, especially in
the omnipresence of digital media today. I consider myself a very constant
consumer of all types of media. To know that it was meant for the enjoyment of
men first is upsetting and unsettling. While ignorance is bliss, change will
not be come from ignorance. As bell hooks explains, women uphold traditional
patriarchal values just as much as men do. A recent example of this is the wife
of NFL star Ray Rice, Janay, condoning the actions of her husband, who knocked her unconscious in an elevator last year.
 |
by contemporary artist Barbara Kruger
(compare this message to the Rockwell-
I definitely see more feminist awareness
here, which is also a reflection of the different
times.) |
Berger wrote, “to be born a woman has been to be born,
within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men” (Berger, 46). Women exist within the realm of men. Understanding
this has honestly made me cynical about my place in society, or as a consumer
of media. "Your body is a battleground," as stated in Barbara Kruger's piece (on the left), and she isn't wrong. These ideas makes me question how others see me, and how I see myself. I would
like to think that I survey others more than I survey myself, but Berger raises
a valid point- is this an explanation for why women have lower self esteems/are
more self conscious? The male gaze prompts the need for an oppositional gaze,
but in order for there to be real change toward equality we must strive to do
more than gaze. We must respond with media, and we, as a society, must
acknowledge the "diasporic" (according to hooks) culture that we have created.
Works Cited
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.
Hooks, Bell. Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. Print.
Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. N.p.: n.p., 1975. Print.
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