Seeing and Viewing, A Chain Reaction from the The Male Gaze

Negative Body Images, Need for A Man, Lack of Self Worth

The male gaze is the male perspective of women, or objects so to say, in paintings, film and television, and advertisements for the sole purpose of personal gain in money, sexual pleasure, and ultimately control. The men create the art as the women stand bare, stripped of their clothing, nude ready to be viewed as a prize and painted as one to be widely received by the “dominant” male population who will be viewing, purchasing and partaking in this degrading, negative connotation of women’s bodies. The gaze is not being naked, because being naked is a result of giving up modesty for human connection in love; it is your raw, truest self on your terms. The gaze represents nudity, a way in which a woman seductively poses for a picture or painting in hopes of attracting the male counterpart in which they will are lured in and meant to feel in control of “their possession.” As Laura Mulvey explains it, “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at… the surveyor of women in herself is male: the surveyed female. The she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight” (Mulvey, Pg. 47).

But It's Only an Ad for Jeans...

Mulvey continues to explain, “She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her.” Women not only are objectified as objects, but they themselves become the one objectifying by subconsciously allowing male thoughts to cross over and convince them of their faults and imperfections until they have convinced themselves of what men want. All within the idea of the spectator is that men find women valuable with their clothes off; flattery from men gives women power. The prize is to be owned, you win by getting the man, but you’re owned. Thus the idea of even enticing creates a negative outcome even for a pay off.

            The Oppositional Gaze, stemming from Black female spectators, creates an idea of “There is power in looking” (The Oppositional Gaze, Pg. 115). In order to change what we see, we as both women and men. need to stare back and challenge the gaze male directors have shown us, even the female directors who give into the male spectators’ needs. “Women can be as wedded to patriarchal thinking and action as men” (The Will to Change, pg. 23). It is how we grow up, what we watch in theaters, on televisions, computers, iPads, iPhones, etc that end up feeding into the notion that we accept what we watch and its portrayal of women. But if we do not accept it, then we have to create it; we have to change the male gaze and oppositional gaze from being culture based and ethnicity specific because in retrospect, the problem is a worldly issue that has to be changed from its roots.

The fundamentals of what make us nations is where the problem stems from, it’s what our children and ourselves learn from each other everyday, to change that we need to show what we are and what we can do. Talking and writing sparks an issue, showing brings it to the forefront. We are capable of creating films and paintings of nudity without being explicit, we are able to show love and sex without going overboard, we can show intimacy and yearn and lust without degrading ourselves to get there. When did money come over body? Money can go in seconds, your body last forever, it makes an impact. “I make films because I was such a spectator!” (Julie Dash, The Oppositional Gaze), Dash did something about it, Ava Duvernay (Selma, 2015) is doing something about it. 

But as for all societies, it takes time for drastic changes to become the norm. After watching Miss Representation (2011) and reading these articles of Hollywood classics and media habits giving into the idea of belittling women, yet success from women is still wanted, something has to change. Even Scorsese has fallen drastically under this category, Margot Robbie very quickly became well recognized for her role in The Wolf of Wall Street, for what exactly? Allowing a detailed, degrading book showcase itself as a well received film. Click the Scorsese link, think about what you actually like about this movie, or was it media's propaganda that made you think you liked it... Remember what it didn't win at the Oscars, there's some respect for women and for our bodies and our minds. As an actress, I hope I don't allow myself to be tricked as so many actresses before me have been, for money versus art and craft. my body, voice and mind are all part of my career, I need to make sure the projects I choose and end up being offered, fit me and for what I stand for, not the other way around. 

                                                          

#GAZE- A discussion on the "Oppositional and Male Gaze"

         “Black female spectators, who refused to identify with white womanhood, who would not take on the phallocentric gaze of desire and possession, created a critical space where the binary opposition Mulvey posits of  ‘woman as image, man as bearer of the look’ was continually deconstructed.” (The Oppositional Gaze, 123)  The oppositional gaze is a technique used to preserve individual dignity, in which many black women would decline the stereotypical representations of women like them and instead actively critique them.

          However, spectators whom were susceptible to stereotypical projections allowed these notions to project into their critical view of themselves in a negative portrait. Furthermore, that could easily be implemented to the view perceived by their children.  Fortunately, Bell Hooks, a black novelist was raised in a family that encouraged critique of the media in their representation of women relatable to themselves.  The separation from her home to the characters on the tv screen disabled a false desire to attain projected ideas of "ideal" beauty and significance.  Not only that, “the pleasure of resistance, of saying no” offered more to the dignity of Bell Hooks as a woman and as a black woman than to anyone who accepted the terminology of media naively.  (The Oppositional Gaze, 123)

          The oppositional gaze developed since the beginning of oppression towards black communities through attempts to regain humanity. To look at white slave owners meant to defer their supremacy over them. It was a desire, that for black women mixed with thoughts of envy and self-detrimental discrimination.    The oppositional gaze is a hatred-influenced stare that tv perpetuates to exhibition when characters are codified and denounced but moreover the spectators critique themselves.  The oppositional gaze actually hinders self-sustainability of black women when they visualize themselves being portrayed in the media, because they begin to see such thoughts as how white supremacists think of them.  And in comparison to themselves, witnessing the false happiness of white men on the television could only put into perspective their own conscious state of being.  “I want my look to change reality.” (The Oppositional Gaze, 116)  The reality is that black women are not depicted in the same relation to white women or even men.  They view the screen and see the difference between themselves and the portrayal of other women and men. But hoping that by staring at this representation of reality that it may contribute to the change of circumstances is a helpless idea that only encourages sustainability.  By simply staring, it undermines the possibilities of change.
 

         As we are confronted with the issue of female inferiority, without co-ed attempts to find solutions, universally there have been little efforts to undermine the commonality of the separation of powers between men and women in our society. “Clearly we cannot dismantle a system as long as we engage in collective denial about its impact on our lives” (Understanding Patriarchy, 24) In reference to the collective acceptance of household women to living in a patriarchal society, Bell Hooks addresses the problem as not being solely a male constituent.  Women choosing to believe in patriarchal principles in their households reinforce these concepts among their children.  Especially in single parent households, one that is mother-led will often have more abundant patriarchal values encouraged and enforced strongly to "benefit" their children with a well-rounded moral sense of the world.   The development of these pre-imposed values are in alignment with the “male gaze.”

          The “male gaze” is an actuality in our society that continues to exist as long as men stare at women in an objectifying manner.  Nonetheless, there is a stigma that perpetuated ideals that women are meant to be looked at or stared at in a certain way by men.  The “gaze” protrudes itself as a form of resistance or assertion of power, which men use to accumulate dominance in the same manner black women would take this into account. But men who subconsciously gaze even in their homes(nude paintings) are disrespecting the female gender by limiting their knowledge of connectivity to who or what they looking at. “To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself.” (Ways of Seeing, 54) The manipulation of the conventional misrepresentation of women has evolved into a gaze that speaks a message of power without words.  The way women are objectified in portraits as nudes, in which the owner-usually a man-can do what he wants with, gives the owner pure ultimate control.  “Men act and women appear.” (The Ways of Seeing, 47) Women watch themselves being looked at; there is no social justice served in situations through which the woman objectifies herself as an object through her own projected male gaze.  Shame and other values are considered when women see themselves in the light of judgment.  The amount of freedom women have to express themselves is limited to the expressions that judgers have for them, according to what they see fit of their stereotype while other aspects are simply dismissed.  And in their gaze, since women have no words to say, men have more room to project “stuff” about them and all this alludes to the prominence of patriarchal attitudes.

          “Then there were those spectators whose gaze was that of desire and complicity. “(The Oppositional Gaze, 120) As spectators, men and women question the representation of women if they do not see her following the normal habits of a "woman." The combination of Hunter College's course offering of Women and Media, outside protests and other social news, further consciousness over self-destructing issues will be raised.   Now, we have access to gaze at celebrities and characters through the tv, at whom we aspire to become like or be with.  Many women see themselves in the media being portrayed in such a critical way.  Women think that they need make-up, accessories and certain advertised goods to fulfill their womanhood because this is what the media projects and it actually hurts more than helps their overall state.  Throughout history, black women would gaze at white women on the television and picture themselves as the white woman in the story.  This was another projection of false happiness in the white world, secluding black women from it ands point an oppositional gaze. Now in commercials, women "male gaze" at other women through which they objectify themselves. The “gaze” has led to awareness raised over the issue of sexism wherein men receive pleasure, and women, discomfort at the expense of objectifying other women and themselves.  Women are objectified so commonly, it is hardly noticed as an issue by the public.  Women continue to accept the "gaze" as a social norm rather than arguing it to replace it with a safe and pleasurable life rather than with a life that is pleasured.  These circumstances have never affected me as a man in our society, in fact I hardly noticed how the situation has affected women until taking Women and Media studies.  Men lose certain rights to express themselves through this system so it affects us as well, and that I have noticed.  It bothers me that I have only been knowledgable of my own state while women face oppression quite more often than men.  When you walk in the streets of NY, you will notice how in certain neighborhoods, the "male gaze" is prominent when a woman walks by and is literally objectified without compassion. Men fulfill their stereotype and women, theirs, but social change happens when you resist the urge to follow or to "gaze."

 

Ways of Seeing- by Wei Wang

Long ago from the European art to nowadays photoshop images, things have not changed quite a bit. People judge each other base on the standard they adapted from arts and media, with those gazes, parts of people in the society are still struggling. 

Picture from SheWeird.com

The male gaze, which is how a male critique females with certain standards they create. The ways men look at women are criticized and base on their own tastes, but it's a different story for women. Because of the male gaze, women tend to be insecure and objectified themselves. Berger mentioned in his book " She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to men, is crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life," which women are used to surveying themselves according to men's desires (Berger 46). Berger argues the portraits of women are whatever men desired, and women never really questioning why. Some women may be struggling with those male gazes because they could not be as perfect as those images are presented in society. Some women may not be struggling because they empowered themselves with the male gazes. Either type of these women is not making things better. Living under the male gaze, women should be more confident and realize the virtue of loving yourself not to desire to be loved by any others.

Another article by Bell Hooks discusses the oppositional gaze, which is the gaze often happens in black women, in general. There are different kinds of categories of human beings, for example, genders and races. People have a hard time to fit into certain kinds of categories in various cultures, but things can be changed. In Bell Hooks article, she came up with the idea of oppositional gaze because she couldn't find herself in the majority. Hooks said " Clearly, the impact of racism and sexism so over-determine spectatorship---not only what we look at but who we identify with---that viewers who are not black females find it hard to emphasize with the central characters in the movie," which makes total sense. It's difficult for other people to feel the harm of the certain images we are given to because they never experience it before (Hooks 130). As a black women with oppositional gaze, allows them to see the problem within the society, and she encourages people always to critique with the gaze in media.

Picture from the blog "Rebel with a Cause"

I am a female born and raised in Taiwan. I sort of feel that I have been affecting by the male gaze and the oppositional gaze. In Asian country, which patriarchy are extreme since ancient emperor era. Living in the society that man long dominate makes me numbness, I am so used to how this society works so I have not doubted about the male gaze. The movies, magazines, shapes and teaches us how to be a "women", the right one. After taking class like Women Gender Studies and Women in Media really opens my mind and think differently, now I become less aware of the male gaze. Not only the black women suffer in society, but in fact people with different race might struggle in the same situation. The way to solve the problem is to be aware. We need to start creating things that women and people of different races can relate to in media. 

Link is provide under!!

The Inspiring speech Patricia Arquette gave on her Oscar win!

Citations:

Berger, John. "2." Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. Print.

Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Atria, 2004. Print.

The Male Gaze and The Oppositional Gaze

The problem of women being treated as objects rather than seeing their intellectual activities has always become the inevitable concern in this society. Seems like men don’t get the blame or be judged on certain things but women do because the majority thinks this is concerned as unappropriated action for women and they should stay on men’s back. After all, what’s more, deep inside human consciousness, the human society is still under the control of patriarchy that makes women look so vulnerable and silent. In Berger’s article, “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 women in herself s male; the surveyed female”(Berger 47). We can see how women are portrayed in the society and women’s appearances are the privilege for men to decide whether to keep in touch or no. In the reading, looking through the example of criticism of many paintings with a nude woman with different nude gestures suggests how men painters consider these types of appearances as the sign of beauty and to entertain themselves. When discussing the “Vanity” painting by Memling during the early Renaissance period, the author states “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you out a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure”(Berger 51). That is, men create those women characters in order to entertain themselves and satisfy their sexual imaginations and if the painted woman was with clothes, men would have thought a complete different way and probably won’t attracted by the painting because what matters is women have good body shape or look “beautiful” enough to attract men’s sights rather than looking at the inner side of her. 

This is the cartoon from Cartoonstock that explains
how the man is giving job opportunity based on
the woman's appearance. 

The male gaze is the stereotype that trapped women from what they are seeking for, equality. “..but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumbed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him”(Berger 64). That’s how we can see women are spending hours doing their makeup and get ready for hanging out and guys are wondering why girls take so much time on dressing up, what they won’t probably be thinking of is that girls try so hard on their looks in order to fit to a guy and guys like girls that have big boobs or skinny waists. In the 2009 documentary “Picture me: A Model’s Diary” by Sara Ziff, the fashion model and Ole Schell. The documentary talks about the untold story behind Sara’s modeling career and some details were shown about how these women models have been treated like “machines and objects”. Models are asked to keep losing weight even though they were already super skinny. Some of them may get fired by the agency because they gained four pounds of weight or they couldn’t fit into the runway clothes. What’s bad is that they sometimes get sexually harassed by the male photographer and if they don’t obey the rules their photo shoot might get canceled and that does affect their careers. Some male photographers use the chance and take some unappropriated photos of the models and force them not to spread things out. Even though a lot of people or feminists criticize about the model industry what’s sad about these models are that they don’t get treated nicely and appearance seems all that matters of being chosen on the runway show or fashion campaign. 

This is American Eagle's "Back to school" campaign and has seen the
retailer "accused of "fuelling Lolita fantasies" and "rampant sexism" for
showing a model beinding over in one of its mini-skirts"(from The Independent UK report).

The oppositional gaze is somehow related to the male gaze but more specific since this is mainly focusing on racism on black women. Bell Hooks describes in her article “The Oppositional Gaze” that how black people can watch white people on the television without getting blamed and talks for the black women that “We are afraid to talk about ourselves as spectators because we have been so abused by ‘the gaze’”(Hooks, 125). Black women couldn’t be shown on the movies because their race speaks for their identity in the old times and even if they were, they always played as some ignorant characters in order to set off the white female characters. As the example the authors talks about watching “Amos ‘n’ Andy” and “Sapphire”, the black female character didn’t impress her a lot because “She was even then backdrop, there to soften images of black men..to a white audience..her black female image was not the body of desire.”(Hooks 120). White supremacy is what makes black people, especially black women so vulnerable and lower their social stances without any persuasive reason. The oppositional gaze insert another problem which the male gaze doesn’t have is the racism and the issue of inequality among women in general is as important as the concern for black people. After that, Hooks states the example of two black characters Louise and Maggie in the film “Passion of Remembrance”, both of the characters defined the gaze as “Looking at one another, staring in mirrors, they appear completely focused on their encounter with black femaleness. How they see themselves is most important, not how they will be stared at others”(Hooks 130). I especially love the last line because this shows there is no need to struggle about how other people see you. Everyone has their own lives and as women, we need to live with our own satisfactions not to satisfy the men. 

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

Ways Of Seeing The Male Gaze

At the age of 13, I vividly remember being street harassed alongside my father in a foreign city walking to our hotel. That feeling, a mixture of both nausea and discomfort, I've come to find as the male gaze. "One might simplify this by saying: 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 relations of women to themselves." (Berger 47) That feeling of women holding a mirror to themselves unconsciously asking themselves,  "Do I look okay today and by whose standards?" can be alarming, which can also be explained by where society puts its priorities. 

Cartoon exemplifying what society deems acceptable and unacceptable

There are moments in time where being a woman and taking care of yourself that somehow correlate with shame and embarrassment -- embarrassment of a new menstrual cycle, taking a birth control pill at the dinner table with family, breastfeeding in public. Basic female necessities that keep women healthy that the male gaze umbrellas, almost always the body, are somehow deemed as inappropriate and unacceptable. The female orgasm in film is rarely seen, as that too, is unacceptable. Patriarchy is the idea of, "To be born a woman has to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men" (Berger 46) Women are for gazing, women are for having, but women cannot be for themselves. 

Jennie Finch, renowned softball player, plays "cutesy" in a mini skirt
and wiffle bat yet her male counterpart from the MLB lands
an action shot on Sports Illustrated.

This type of sexualization of women can be traced back for centuries but the fascination of the female body has yet to have ceased, for all the wrong reasons. In media, women are most often objects. As a woman, and especially a woman of color, it can be easier to actively avoid and distance yourself from that objectification by taking on the "oppositional gaze". "...I had developed the oppositional gaze. Not only would I be hurt by the absence of black female presence, or the insertion of violating representation, I interrogated the work" (hooks 122) hooks describes the movie going experience for a black woman as a sense of invisibility and frustration, to not have to the ability to identify with what she knows -- but without  "mammy" trope. The gaze, the stare, has been a part of the black experience for centuries, "By courageously looking, we defiantly declare: "Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality." (hooks 116) That defiance and courage is how I imagine the patriarchy to change. By fighting the norm, the pa

In "Oppositional Gaze", bell hooks has once again proven that intersectional feminism is the only type of feminism that should be in existence in today's culture. When there is inequality, struggle, and hardship, each member of those parties should rise together to defeat it -- not compartmentalize based on gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. As Mulvey points out from A Question of Silence, "Perhaps the final horror for a male viewer of A Question of Silence is the textual prelude to murder: when all three women share a gaze they are empowered to kill" (Mulvey 109) In my experiences with white male privilege, the root is fear of loss of power. Sojourner Truth realized as far back as 1851 in her feminist speech, Ain't I A Woman?, "I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon." The deeply rooted fear of the collapse of patriarchy and the fear of being treated as women and people of color is what needs to change in society today.

Equality, at its core, is inclusion. It's the idea of sharing experiences with equal weight and gravity. hooks, in my experiences correctly, notes that, "Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation...Men who have heard and know the world usually associate with women's liberation, with feminism" (17 hooks) The understanding of patriarchy needs to be more apparent in everyday culture. It is just as damaging to men to live up to unrealistically stable expectations as it is for a woman to be unrealistically perfect object.

        

 (Kerry Washington's reading of

                                                          "Aint I A Woman?" by Sojourner Truth) 

Works Cited:

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting :, 1973. Print.
hooks, bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Washington Square, 2004. Print.
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. 2nd ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire [England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.

Post #2 On Ways of Seeing, Male Gaze, the Oppositional Gaze

         The male gaze as we discuss in class and in the readings describes ways how men look at women from somewhat of a pervasive perspective. In one of the readings, Berger said “Men survey women before treating them.  Consequently how a woman appears to a man can be determine how she will be treated.” (Berger 46) Women are being looked at or gaze in an objective way, like an object.  Berger also said “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 relations of women to themselves. The surveyor of women 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)

            This male gaze, surveying women as an object, this male spectator - owner things, examples can be found in many of the Renaissance art works, particularly  portraits and nudes of females.  These art works are mostly drawn by male artists either for their own pleasure or were commissioned by male to draw the women of their desire for them to gaze, to survey, and to own.  Berger said the “you painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you call the painting vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure.” (Berger 51)

            In today’s mass media, male gaze theme can be found in many forms of medium from scenes in motions picture, M for mature rating video games, modern nude art works, magazines, printed material, comics and animation, and in commercial advertising. Because the targeted viewer and consumers are predominately males ages 18 to 34, and sex, and sexuality sells.  Like those Calvin Klein billboard ads where the model are wearing only their Calvins.

Male gaze, spectator Calvin Klein Ad

Male gazing the oppositional gaze Chanel Ad 

  

   

            The oppositional gaze is somewhat of the consequence or a response when one challenges or appears to defy a male gaze or of a person in authority.  In the reading “The Oppositional Gaze, Hooks recalled when she was growing up the act of the oppositional gaze towards a grown up “looks that were seen as confrontational, as gestures of resistance, challenges to authority…Imagine the terror felt by the child who has come to understand through repeated punishments that one’s gaze can be dangerous.” (Hooks 115)

            Hooks mentioned in her essay the first time she read about the oppositional gaze was “in history class that white slave-owners (men, women, and children) punished enslaved black people for looking, I wondered how this traumatic relationship to the gaze had informed black parenting and black spectatorship.” (Hooks 115)  But then Hooks goes on saying “the child who has learned to so well to look the other way when necessary. Yet, when punished, the child is told by parents, “Look at me when I talk to you.” Only, the child is afraid to look.  Afraid to look, but fascinated by the gaze. There is power in looking.” (Hooks 115)

            Hooks feel that this oppositional gaze can be powerful as well. Hooks mentioned when she “returned to films as a young woman, after a long period of silence, [she] had developed on oppositional gaze. Not only would [she] not be hurt by the absence of black female presence, or the insertion of violating representation, I interrogated the work, cultivated a way to look past race, and gender for aspects of content, form, language.” (Hooks 122)

The oppositional gaze from daughter and mother at Harrod's of London. Photo by Joe Chan 1980

            Growing up in a Chinese household in Hong Kong, I can relate to Hook’s experience. The Chinese in Hong Kong were not slaves but we were colonized and assimilated to the British culture treated as second and third class citizens in your own land. In the Chinese culture, children, servants, or lower subjects were not allow to look up at their parents, their superiors and patriarchy plays a major in this gaze pissing contest. As far as I can recollect, I was defiant when I was younger those oppositional gaze costs me, and the beat escalated. But it also taught me greater self-control and better self-discipline, I can relate to Hook’s feeling that the oppositional gaze can be powerful from her perspective. 

Ethnic Make Up

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

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

Intent Look.

I might not be a female, but I was born out of a great women. Growing up with three females at home, my mother and my two sisters. In which I had always had a fear of disrespecting a women in any sort of way. In which I too wouldn't want to see any one of my sisters or my own mother. These readings, have help me shape my views better on not just caring for females in my household, but for every female I will come across. The way media portrays females as subjects and objects are now more than ever very devastating to me.

The male gaze is when females are portrayed as subjects for the satisfaction of a male audience. In Ways of Seeing “One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Man look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between man and women but also the relation of women to themselves” (John Berger, 47).  Berger states how the appearance of women equals the presence of a man. The stated fact that women and their bodies are what men demand and are a custom to. the idea for women to be shown as such since the times of Adam and Eve. “She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her” (John Berger, 50). Women's bodies become an object or subject, Adam and Eve had no idea they were naked until they both took a bit of the apple, in which they became nude. In today's society being naked is now illegal, to be portrayed as being naked is bad, yet being nude is what really is harmful. It's the difference of being naked and nude. Being nude is to show love to yourself, to be a viewer of yourself. Being nude is to be the subject and let others, in this case the men to be the viewers of the subject or object. On ads of high-end clothing lines, in which all models are slim and their image are manipulated to look like the ideal woman. Another example that do not represent how real women are is reality TV.

(Dove Campaign versus the Victoria Secret Campaign is

the difference between being Naked and Nude.)

It is a pervasive form of vision in popular culture because as boys become men in a society where women are portrayed as subjects, it seems like a very “common” idea for a boy growing up with such a state of mind.  “To indoctrinate boys into the role of patriarchy, we force them to feel pain and to deny their feelings.” (Bell Hooks, 22)  Patriarchy is how gender roles are played out, how a boy should act, how a girl should be. Hooks, tells the reader that boys don't always say how they feel and what they feel. Maybe if they truthfully show the real them, then other would portray them as not being ‘manly’ enough. The fact that boys don’t cry, just for the fact that they shouldn’t express their feelings. That a young girl is limit to how she can act and what she can play with or the way she can dress. There is a thick line between being a male and female or a boy or a girl that teaches children at a very young age not to cross that line and stay within its boundaries. 

(The way most parents raise their children, 

without the knowledge of Patriarchy.)

“Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality.” (Bell Hooks, 116) The Oppositional Gaze, is the point of view of a black female as Bell Hooks herself looking into the male gaze and realizing that there is more than just a female subject and a male viewer. There is race involved in the oppositional gaze. Hooks could not completely relate to just the male gaze itself, because she being a black female and  had a different view in which she felt that her race does play a huge part into this. A great example of this is a character in a film in which an audience member can relate to. Disney movies always had a white princess until a couple of years ago. The film must be full of diversity, in which more people could relate, different races or even same sexes.

After looking into all of these readings, I was able to understand the meaning of patriarchy, and how this has an impact on the male gaze. How the male gaze has an impact on the oppositional gaze. As I too was raised in a patriarchy society, in which as a child, I used to hear people say “this is for girls or this is how boys should play”. Even in all those twelve years of school, it was so narrow on what a boy and a girl could do, for the fact of doing something different, people were to judge. Reading about the male gaze does indeed have a great impact to realize, how the media portrays it. I do consume different type’s media on a daily basis, and never really realized how bad a women was portrayed. The oppositional gaze, I could relate to because I am a consumer of media, I do look for views to relate to.  With patriarchy, I learned that as a man, it is alright to express the feelings felt inside and never to hold them back.

Ted Talk Cameron Russell

Citation:

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.
3. Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Atria, 2004.