Ways of seeing

   The male gaze is how men objectify women in media through their views. They then translate how the see women for the audience. So when we watch a movie we are doing so from the perspective and viewpoint of the male in power. Women in turn start viewing themselves from this male gaze.

   The male gaze is a pervasive from of vision in popular culture through how women are depicted in media. If you reference many Hollywood movies, the heroine is actually only important for what she represents not who she is. Her role can be played and interchanged by other actresses and at the end of the day there is no importance placed on her identity. You don’t really know who she is you only know what her position is in relation to a male. Imagine you are watching a really cool action movie and there’s this beautiful main actress, long flowing blonde hair and a trademark white bathing suit. She’s also the only woman in the movie. Does this allude to the power play in Media and just how much control the male population has, yes I think it does. Anyway, this heroine is dangerous but non threatening, sexy but chaste and the list goes on with many more contradictory portrayed traits. Now let’s say as the story continues between the villain and the hero; the actress in scene 1 has been replaced by another actress in scene 2. This goes on and on in every scene a new woman is playing the role but the blonde wig and white bathing suit stays. Now these are different women, some will have accents, some will hail from distant parts of the world, no one is alike but does that make a difference in the film? No it does not. This movie is no different from any other modern film because this is what the male gaze has done to our culture. The woman is a symbol of an idea but because her identity is not a factor she does not create the idea.

The contradictory ideals put forth by the media are then thrusted on women as of a young age and the male gaze is not just something portrayed in movies, it’s now something you live with. A woman is on display; aware that she is constantly being watched. John Berger explains how the male gaze effects gender roles “A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself… Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated” (46)

   The oppositional gaze is explained by Bell Hooks as a response to how black women were portrayed in films. It takes the male gaze and points out it’s flaws on a deeper level by stating that the male gaze is only how men view white women “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… it was the oppositional black gaze that responded to these looking relations by developing independent black cinema”(117). When black individuals were portrayed if they even were in films it would be in relation to serving or further the agenda of a white woman/man.

I have come to understand these structures as very real problems in our society. Reading these articles I feel that I am a by- product of all the images the media has bombarded me with. Am I now a willing participant in viewing these negative portrayals of women? I look at other women, I look at myself and as much I don’t want to admit it, I am constantly viewing it from the male gaze. There is this crisis of identity that arises from the duality of constantly watching yourself and how you appear in the eyes of others and it’s exhausting. John Berger hit the nail on the head when he spoke about the differences in presence between a man and woman. It is all rather infuriating. 

Male gaze. Subject watching the viewer, knowing she is simultaneously being watched.

Oppositionnal gaze. Black woman and her role in furthering the agenda of a white woman.

Bibliography

1. Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting : Penguin, 1972.
2. Hooks, Bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston, MA: South End, 1992.