Post # 1 : Male Gaze and Oppositional Gaze

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/