In today’s society where the powers that be still tend to
consist of a majority of males, the opinion, perception, and views of males
tend to have much more power and control over the masses as opposed to those of
females. This is where the male gaze originates from. As the term suggests, it
basically means the way men view things in general and those things also
consist of, for the most part, the female gender. The curious part about this
gaze, however, relates to men seeing women as yet another object that is just a
part of the things they tend to think about although this particular “thing”
tends to take up much more of their interest comparatively and usually in a lustful way.
Since male power stretches out into the field of media as
well, their views on women and how they see or wish to see the female has been
promoted through art and popular culture throughout the ages in positive and extensively glamorized ways. A brief observation of today’s
celebrities, models and other trendsetters in media can provide one with the
awareness that a woman is viewed favorably by males as a pretty, yet weak and
easy to dominate character. In some instances women are expressed by males as
flowers or perhaps even dolls and puppets that can be “played” around with and
controlled and hence the abundance of pictures of female celebrities in very
little clothing on many magazines’ covers, it is just how men want them to look. Of course, it isn't entirely the
fault of the male to exert such power over the opposite gender and even demand
such dependence through media. It is also due to the silent acquiescence of the
woman towards such demands. As Berger writes, “…how a woman appears to a man
can determine how she will be treated. To acquire some control over this
process, women must contain and interiorize it. That part of a woman’s self
which is the surveyor treats the part which is the surveyed so as to
demonstrate to others how she would like to be treated” (46).
Oppositional gaze on the other hand, relates to how one can
view the dominant powers in one’s surroundings in a critical and questioning
manner and therefore potentially empower the self to rebel against and oppose
such entities of power. That is not to say that all groups and people in power
have harmful intentions towards those under their authority or influence but
that entities who wish to gain from limiting one’s freedom or even the illusion
of limiting it should be the ones questioned for their actions. They should
also have their morality weighed more often instead of being accepted in
silence.
Taking the topic of the racist views and ideas expressed
through the media industry into consideration, domination of the male whites
has been evident for quite long in the American media. Since the media is the
source of knowledge in terms of the things that are supposed to be good or bad
in society, largely under the male gaze, women tend to look towards it as a
sort of dogma to be followed on how they should think and appear. Apart from
the male gaze providing the view of a woman being a desirable toy to play with,
there’s also the subtly promoted the view that the desirable woman is white. Even
today, the presence of the black race is scarce in media and even those rare
appearances can turn out to be misleading about the race in general since the
creators are usually white people, there are even shows where people that are visually
attractive among white people appear with the lesser attractive among the black
people and the viewers are therefore provided with the illusory view that black
people are not as attractive in comparison. Although it must have been quite
disheartening, for black women to see these ideas being offered to the
viewing masses as “popular”, it also opened a way for them to think
critically and become aware of the true nature of such views of the media for
the fabricated illusion they were. This lead to the development of the
oppositional gaze of black women in regards to “popular” media. As Bell Hooks
states, “Black female spectators actively chose not to identify with the film’s
imaginary subject because such identification was dis enabling” (122). The women
chose to question the media and therefore found the freedom and awareness to
not be bothered about it anymore.
Although I was already much aware of the male gaze due to
coming from a culture that is very rigidly dominated by males and favors men
over women in much more blatant terms, I feel that I have now come to see the
same perception at work in the western culture, even though the methods are a
bit different. While my culture suppresses the woman by concealing her strictly
in full clothing and offering very little independence outside of the parents’
and later on husband’s rule, the western culture suppresses her through treating
her as a mere object existing only for the fulfillment of lustful desires. In
regards to my understanding of oppositional gaze, my previous view merely
consisted of using critical thinking primarily as the ultimate filter for
whatever knowledge we encounter instead of taking all knowledge as a sponge. I
feel that I have learned much more in terms of how women used and have the ability to use oppositional gaze in order to attain freedom and that it should
be used in all aspects of life whenever necessary.
Another area where I personally feel critical thinking is more than often needed but sadly ignored or forgotten, the quote can also be interpreted in terms of media and its power on the perception of the masses. The link is below:
http://jackcomstock.deviantart.com/art/Question-Everything-196744719
It seems the woman's role as a exploitable puppet has actually been literally glamorized, this particular photo shoot is by ELLE Italia, link and more pictures here: http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2012/04/elle-italia-pastel-puppet.html
An interesting article I found which relates to NSA surveillance in terms of the male gaze, the author cited John Berger from Ways of Seeing as well. The link to the article is: http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-beheld/ill-be-watching-you-nsa-surveillance-and-the-male-gaze/
It seems the woman's role as a exploitable puppet has actually been literally glamorized, this particular photo shoot is by ELLE Italia, link and more pictures here: http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2012/04/elle-italia-pastel-puppet.html
An interesting article I found which relates to NSA surveillance in terms of the male gaze, the author cited John Berger from Ways of Seeing as well. The link to the article is: http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-beheld/ill-be-watching-you-nsa-surveillance-and-the-male-gaze/
I'm a fan of people that can relate to what they write instead of just relying on facts. To be able to connect pure text to life events is admirable. Love the post and I learned a lot about a culture and upbringing that I knew absolutely nothing about. Great job!!!
ReplyDeletegreat interpretations and insights. I think the additional links are great and a really creative way to add to the post.
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