The Male Gaze and the Oppositional Gaze

"Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated." (Berger 46) This excerpt from John Berger's Ways of Seeing perfectly sums up what the male gaze is. The male gaze implies that every thing a woman is and does is only done so in relation to what a man would think is best. The way a woman sees herself has become shaped by how men would see her. "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)

PETA ad director: "Hey we gotta put a bunny in here to remind everyone this is about animals' rights and not female body exploitation."

The objectification of women in media is nothing new as it has been so ingrained in pop culture that it has become normal. In advertising, the female body is often used to sell a product that, more often than not, has nothing to do with woman in the ad. PETA touts posters with female celebrities naked to promote the welfare of animals; in reality it is pretty obvious that PETA is trying to reach a certain audience to respond positively to their ads.

PETA ad director: "Trust me. I took Anatomy in high school. I know what I'm talking about."

Many of the ads say "I'd rather go naked than wear fur," which sounds like a very hyperbolic statement. But then PETA uses the same tactic to say things like "Eat green to go green" and the connection between the naked woman and the message makes a little less sense. What does this naked woman have to do with being vegetarian? Not only does this attract the male gaze but it also delves into body image.

PETA ad director: "Eating meat is gross and wrong!...hey let's get someone naked laying on top of potential salad and make sure she's hot so it isn't gross."

The oppositional gaze is a response to the male gaze or any other oppressive gaze. bell hooks describes that as a child she was told not to stare at adults yet when she was punished her parents always told her to look them in the eyes. hooks uses this anecdote to point out the irony in gazing. "...the child is afraid to look. Afraid to look but fascinated by the gaze. There is power in looking." (hooks 115) According to hooks, the oppositional gaze can be used by disenfranchised groups (in her article, she calls for  black female spectators to use it) to inspire change; To stare back at the oppressor is to create a space for the oppressed.

 "Looking at films with an oppositional gaze, black women were able to critically assess the cinema's construction of white womanhood as object of the phallocentric gaze of and choose not to identify with either the victim or the perpetrator." (hooks 122)

With the oppositional gaze in mind, it has brought to my attention how little representation there is of people that look like me. Nearly all the movies I watch have white male leads (I say this as I watch The Avengers on television, whose roster includes four white men, a white woman, and green rage monster...who is actually a white man) and I have unconsciously accepted that. If there are any people that look like a short, Filipino guy in films and television, they are usually relegated to throwaway roles or stereotypical jokes. It is very rare to see people like me in leading roles that are not hinged on their race.

But with the power of the internet, people have used an oppositional gaze to call out these cases of misrepresentation in media. With the recent announcement of a new Spider-Man movie with a new actor, many are rallying to have a black Spider-Man. It made me ask, "Would a black Spider-Man even be all that bad? It's not like his character relies on being white." All in all, I think that the oppositional gaze can create a space for people that are not white and male within media.

Peter Parker (left) teams up  with Miles Morales (right), In true comic book fashion, they are each the Spider-Man of their respective universes.

Works Cited
1. Berger, John. "Chapters 2 & 3." Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin, 1972. 37-64. Print.
2. Hooks, Bell. "The Oppositional Gaze." Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston, MA: South      End, 1992. 115-31. Print.