The Male Gaze

      The male gaze would be how the male sees/views the woman. In art, women were not respected as artists. They were seen as objects. Women were seen as inferior in earlier times.
      Bell Hook's states, "...in all relations of power there is necessarily the possibility of resistance" (116). Women had to constantly fight against this male gaze. The oppositional gaze is a critical gaze, one that looks to document (116). The black gaze is how black people view how whites interpret them. These interpretations are in cinema and television. The oppositional gaze is all about white supremacy. Black woman like Lena Horne were not viewed as being black because of their skin color and features. Black was only associated with them because it was specifically coded as being black.
      Black women were misrepresented in cinema. They were seen as, "someone to be lied to, someone to be tricked, someone the white and black audience could hate. Scapegoated on all sides. She was not us" (120). Black women did not want to be associated with this negative image. Black women hated but could identify with this image.
      Some black women longed to be the white woman pictured in films. They would set aside racism and sexism to just enjoy the movie. It was like they could live through the white woman for awhile. But according to Miss Pauline, "it made coming home hard" (121). One had to simply look at a movie for pleasure and not look too deep. Looking too deep caused pain to the black woman. They would turn a blind eye to the cinema.
      I never really looked too deep on how black women were represented in films. I would just watch a movie for fun. The only movies I would realize how black people are being treated are movies that have to deal with racism, like The Help. I never really looked at how black people are represented as a whole in all cinema.  Now that I have this knowledge, I will look more deeply into it.

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