Group 1 - Kathleen Hanna

Hanna Performing in the 1990's

Kathleen Hanna is an American singer and activist most well known for her work as the lead singer of punk band Bikini Kill and as a pioneer of the riot grrrl movement, an underground feminist punk movement which was most popular in the 1990’s.

During her childhood, Hanna and her family moved from Oregon to Maryland. Hanna cites her mother as a huge influence on her ideas around feminism. She and her mother both had a deep interest in the women’s rights movement.

After moving back to the Northwest for college, Hanna had her first experience with organizing for activist events. She and her friends created an art and photography exhibit which dealt with themes of sexism and AIDS. Soon she began to perform spoken-word poetry which addressed similar themes. Eventually, a friend of hers suggested that she join a band, which lead to her entrance into the punk scene.

 

Early riot grrrl zine by Bikini Kill

In the early 1990’s, Hanna was part of a band called Bikini Kill. Bikini Kill's music addressed female empowerment, feminism, homosexuality, and sexual violence. Soon into their career, Bikini Kill launched the underground punk feminist movement riot grrrl. Riot grrrl consisted of multiple female-led bands which aimed to create a safe space for women and girls at punk shows by enforcing policies like “girls to the front” and passing out zines to audience members at their shows.

Hanna herself ended up at the front of tabloid magazines which made false claims about her reasons for starting riot grrrl, attributing it to rumors that her father had raped her during her childhood. These rumors were false. Her beef with punk singer Courtney Love also made it to tabloid magazines, after Love walked up to Hanna and (possibly) hit her in the face during Lollapallooza in 1995, which sparked a backstage argument between the two.

In 2013, filmmaker Sini Anderson released a documentary called “The Punk Singer” about Kathleen Hanna’s life. Today, Hanna remains a feminist punk icon who continues to spread her activism along with her music career, all while battling Lyme Disease.

Here is a link to our slideshow so y'all can check out our visual components and some of the videos we may not get to in the presentation! :)

What Teenagers Think About the Allegations Against Brett Kavanaugh

Here is the New York Times article that I spoke about in class. A very interesting article and how it plays with topics and themes that we've already read and discussed about the male gaze and gender roles. I hope you enjoy reading it.

K. Tenaillon
9/24
Entry 2

The Male Gaze

Unknown source from Google

The Male Gaze is a pervasive, assumed, and inherent way, behavior and attitude attributed towards how women are seen and perceived in almost all societies, as dictated by the attitudes and beliefs formed by men, or a male-centric audience. I cannot claim knowledge of attitudes towards women on a global scale, but as John Berger notes in his seminal work, Ways of Seeing (1972), “Women are depicted in a quite different way from men - not because the feminine is different from the masculine - but because the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.”(p.64)

Although we now live in an age where “equal opportunity objectification” (Schwyzer, 2013) exists and is recognized, where objectified males now experience poor body imaging, and having to live up to unrealistic ideals of the male body (i.e. virile, manly, etc.), the male gazer still generally misses the point in their understanding of what women are all about, in how women hope to be seen and understood: that one size, shape and image does not speak for all women.  

Inasmuch as I wish to not generalize this concept, it is quite evident that images of women sell, most especially if they are depicted as alluring to the male spectator and must therefore be emulated by every woman in order to be acceptable in society; society being a concept dictated by men’s vision alone.

Of the three readings, this resonated most with me the most. I am not quite from the selfie-generation, but have come to realize that even my phone camera will now auto detect lines and spots on my face to create the perfect selfie, instantly washing out what it deems as “imperfect.” My phone never once asked me if I wish to have a “glamour shot” as opposed the realistic image of myself. Even such small things tell me that this is what society has dictated as the acceptable version of myself that I can post on social media. God forbid that I be allowed to take the real version of my image on my own phone. 

People do not realize that in making us want to look perfect, we therefore are also preconditioned to buy into the concept of being perfect as the only acceptable version of ourselves that must exist. Buying into it means wanting more and never being content with our real selves. It is difficult enough to be a woman stared at and - on worse occasions, visually judged without my knowledge by both men, and the women who have also bought into the concept of harshly judging their fellow women. For as long as the male gaze dictates what sells in this world, women will constantly be on the uphill battle, working towards acceptance, and freedom from judgement even when it is silent and unspoken.

References:

Berger, John, Dibb (1972). “Ways of Seeing.” London: BBC Enterprises

Schwyzer, H. (2013, June 19). Can Men Handle Being Ogled? Retrieved from https://jezebel.com/5854281/can-men-handle-being-ogled

The male gaze can be defined as the way that visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, focusing on presenting women as objects of male pleasure. Essentially this concept relies heavily on objectification of women, and defines women as being surveyed by men, who are the surveyors. 

On a personally level, I really enjoyed the things that Kilbourne had to say about woman and cigarettes. I started smoking when I was thirteen and had never had any intention of quitting, until my twenty third birthday last year. Kilbourne states, “Teenager women today are engaging in far riskier health behavior in greater numbers that any prior generation.” Kilbourne continues to state that girls who were active confident and feisty at ages ten often tend to become hesitant insecure and self-doubting at eleven. That really spoke to me, even though I didn’t want to admit it. Reading that was like a sense of self analysis, its like I had an epiphany. I started smoking when I started hanging out with boys. What I had seen through advertisements for tobacco products and women who smoke in movies and on tv is that smoking made you mysterious and seductive, and I wanted to be viewed as such. My addiction was a produced from the pressures of the male gaze, and my naive young mind didn’t realize that. Reflecting on this concept now, I feel like Im in shell shock and quite frankly I’m disgusted with myself. But que sera, sera.  

In the reading cutting girls down to size, Kilbourne chooses to identify the issues of the male gaze through examining magazine advertisements. A quote from the reading states, “Girls try to make sense of the contradictory expectations of themselves in a culture dominated by advertising. Advertising is one of the most potent messengers in a culture that can be toxic for girls self esteem.” This is true throughout all aspects of media, including television, movies, music ect. 

Even though we are moving into an era that is trying to eradicate the male gaze, it is still prevalent in our society. Magazine covers still bare overtly sexualized women on the covers, while the men that are pictured are clothed. It is expressed through images in magazines that a woman's shape is directly related to her value and attractiveness. In an article that I found online, Gill states that women have now even absorbed the male gaze, and are "doing it to themselves" by wearing making, having elective surgeries, and wearing skimpy clothing. I agree with this, but also feel that women can chose to do what ever they feel with their bodies and how they project themselves to the world. Some state that it can be viewed as self empowerment. Is there still a 'male gaze' in magazines

Films and television still set to determine what is an acceptable style or type of woman. Mulvey states that, “Main stream film neatly combined spectacle and narrative… the presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation.” What Mulvey is saying is that in film women are viewed as a distraction to the male led, instead of playing a role a bigger role in the over all development of the film. 

Bell Hooks concept of the oppositional gaze is kind of like the opposite of Mulvey’s point of view. As a woman of color, she shares her experiences with the male gaze and what that means in society. She explains how women of color experience a lack of representation in media, and how that has done violence to their image. “We laughed at shows… at these white representations of blackness, but we also looked at them critically. Black viewers of movies and television experienced visual pleasures in a context where looking was also about contestation and confrontation.” Bell Hooks examines a lack of adequate representation, and poses the question who will make movies with blackness portrayed in the right way?

I think that in this day and age we are at the forefront of trying to over come these stereotypes and create a dialogue about body positive imagery and discussions about intersectionality. These topics will help to crumble the concepts of the male gaze in our society. 

Male Gaze and Oppostional Gaze

In an ideal world, gender would not exist. The existence of gender is due to sexism; if we were all truly equal there would be no such preconceived differentiating. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a world and thus are left to deal with the implications of certain social rules and constructs placed upon us based on our appearances/perceived genders.

In this world, “men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. […] 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,” while men are their actions (Berger 47).  This objectification of women, which is rampant in all forms of media, is known as the “male gaze.” The male gaze is a concept that was introduced by Laura Mulvey, and using this term she discusses this prime difference between men and women.

Despite being coined in 1975, the male gaze has existed for ages, long enough for it to have deeply woven itself into our consciousness through societal enforcement, being present in our education system, politics, and of course the media. Growing up, men are given certain roles to perform in society and are judged based on the promise of power they embody, while women are given roles that lead them to be constantly surveyed by men, thus leaving all the power in the hands of men (Berger 45). Thus, the male gaze has become a pervasive form of vision in popular culture.   

Women are pressured to appear a certain way to be worthy of going to the beach.

The “oppositional gaze”, coined by bell hooks in 1992, was made as a political rebellion against the one-sidedness of the gaze, which is centered on white people. The oppositional gaze is about the lack of representation of black women in the media primarily due to how they are stereotyped and prejudiced against; “one sees clearly why black women spectators not duped by mainstream cinema would develop an oppositional gaze. […] Black female spectators actively chose not to identify with the film’s imaginary subject because such identification was disenabling” (bell hooks 122). Furthermore, “looking at films with an oppositional gaze, black women were able to critically assess the cinema’s construction of white womanhood as object of phallocentric gaze and choose not to identify with either the victim or the perpetrator” (hooks, 122). These women are not letting society’s perception of them affect how they see or feel about themselves; they are aware that the media portrayals of them do not align with reality.

Prior to learning about these structures, although I did question a few things here and there, I did not see the larger problem. I did not realize just how much the patriarchy affected every single person’s existence. I always viewed problems as very one dimensional; why must guys provide? Why must women nurture? In most movies and TV shows we see growing up, super heroes are predominantly men, and emotions are predominantly played out by women. This directly influences our youth into feeling the need to reflect such roles into their daily lives. Having come to understand these structures, I feel it is less about pointing fingers and finding someone to blame (as I had often seen it prior) and more about educating everyone.

Personally, I feel like my role in this is a bit complicated. Growing up, I always felt uneasy about gender and had been questioning it since as early as the age of three. I recall trying on my moms makeup as a kid, as I’m sure all kids naturally do, and getting yelled at for it. For me, it was especially confusing growing up because of all of the gender roles thrown at kids through every form of media and peer pressure in school, until I learned of all of this. I am still learning more and more about myself every day, and as such do not identify as any particular gender. However, appearing male and going along with that as to not complicate things, I understand that that holds certain implications, privileges, and other connotations. Thus, I feel the need to take on a role of educating my peers in even the smallest ways. There is nothing more powerful than seeing and feeling things as they should. Had everyone known what we know now but as children, the world would be a much better place. Luckily, it is never too late to learn.

SOURCES:

1.Berger, John, Dibb (1972). “Ways of Seeing.” London: BBC Enterprises

2. Hooks, Bell (1992). “The Oppositional Gaze.” In Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press

3.Mulvey, Laura (1999) “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford UP: Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen.

The Male and Oppositional Gazes

The male gaze is almost impossible to evade. John Berger tells us in his “Ways of Seeing” that the way women are treated is a direct result of the way that men perceive them. The more attractive a woman is, the better she will be treated by the men around her. What’s more is that women often take on this practice of looking at themselves through the lens of the male gaze in order to at least have some power over their existence. If women can predict the way that men will see them, and then subsequently treat them, we can tailor ourselves to get a better result out of that. In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey says that, “The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly,” ( 837). Women constantly put themselves through hell to better fit into the box of what society says is attractive. We starve ourselves, rip out our hair, and go under the knife, sometimes risking our health or even our lives because the male gaze tells us that if we’re not beautiful, we’re nothing.

Jessica Rabbit, an impossibly proportioned cartoon
woman being observed by real life men.

In the FX show, “Nip Tuck,” the lives of two white male plastic surgeons are chronicled. In this scene, we can see one of the protagonists, Christian, telling a woman, Kimber, all the ways she is physically inadequate, and how she could be improved. The scene ends with Christian staring at the marked up, nearly naked, and distraught Kimber in the mirror, and uttering the chilling words, “When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead.” That being said, the reason that this demonstration begins in the first place is because Kimber prompts Christian to show her how she can be perfect. Hooks supports Berger’s idea that women also take on the role of the male oppressor, towards themselves and also towards others. Hooks says, “We need to highlight the role women play in perpetuating and sustaining patriarchal culture so that we can recognize patriarchy as a system women and men support equally, even if men receive more rewards from that system,” (24). 

If this wasn’t grim enough, Berger shows us that men also then throw blame and shame onto women who they deem to be vain. When speaking about Renaissance paintings, Berger says, “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put 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,” (51). This almost begs to be compared to a very common problem that women face in our current society: when a man asks a woman to send an explicit picture, and then publishes this picture and shames the woman for having taken it in the first place. I can remember  almost countless instances of female celebrities having nude photos published without consent, and yet cannot seem to recall even one instance of this happening to a male celebrity. This is because the male gaze deems the naked female body to be desirable enough to broadcast with or without consent, and yet simultaneously deems the woman, the subject of the photo, to be a slut. 

The oppositional gaze has developed over a period of time to have different identities when coming from different groups. Hooks shows us that when slave owners punished enslaved black people for even looking at them, it made the gaze forbidden, and therefore a powerful act of rebellion when actively done. She says, “That all attempts to repress our/black people’s right to gaze had produced in us an overwhelming longing to look, a rebellious desire, an oppositional gaze,” (116) The first ways in which the black oppositional gaze manifested itself in creation was in “independent black cinema,” (117). This focused mainly on black males getting representation and having a voice to stand up against white supremacist suppression. The unfortunate casualty of this, however, is the black female. Since black men were long murdered for even an alleged glance at a white woman, the black male oppositional gaze took no care to represent white women in a positive way, and black women were scarcely found on screen at all, even more scarcely so in an accurate way. 

This is a key example of why in feminist rhetoric and practice, white women and women of color can not be assumed to have had the same experiences, which is an assumption that is often made. Bell Hooks’ pointing out the difference between oppositional gazes and how the experiences of women differ so greatly, is something that just further establishes an idea which I am now familiar with, but which was absolutely foreign to up until about the end of high school. Often times, and mostly by white women, the idea is touted that no matter what, women must stick together. The problem with this is that it completely disregards countless issues that women of color face, where white women do not. Celebrity drama holds many examples of this unfolding for us to look at. Nicki Minaj has made a case against Taylor Swift for ignoring the bias that black women in the music industry are up against, and has publicly called out Miley Cyrus for appropriating black culture and then running for the hills when she could have been an ally. Looking at the way that Hooks lays out the differences between the portrayal of white and black women in early cinema is easy proof that feminism cannot be colorblind.  

Works Cited

Berger, John, Dibb (1972). “Ways of Seeing.” London: BBC Enterprises

Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. Washington Square Press, 2005.

Mulvey, Laura, et al. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975). Afterall Books, 2016.

Playing the Role - Post #2

The male gaze is the lens through which men see women.  Since we live in a patriarchal society, the way that society is shaped follows the male gaze. Women are seen as objects whose function is to please men. Berger simplifies it as “men act and women appear” (Berger, 47). This means that men are dominant figures in society who have the pleasure of acting independently and in their sole interest while women are the submissive figures that depend on men to give them a sense of purpose. A woman is expected to keep up her appearance so that she can be considered attractive to men. Mulvey mentions that the male gaze projects its fantasy on the female figure making them the bearers of the look and women as the image to be looked at (Mulvey, 837).

Movie: Pretty Woman

The male gaze is a pervasive form of vision in pop culture because most of what see in the media is a direct reflection of it. Female tropes in television display women as more passive than active. Finding films that pass the Bechdel test proves to be increasingly difficult. Television shows like The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men show men as dominant and women as meant for the sexual and/or visual pleasure of men. In Big Bang theory, the main female lead is a pretty blonde who is not as bright as the men while in Two and a Half Men, the women are only there for sexual gratification but don’t hold any substance. There is a show on Netflix called Insatiable, where a teenage girl who was fat loses over 70 pounds and is instantly seen as attractive with the hopes of becoming a pageant queen – a dream that the character did not believe to be attainable had she been 70 pounds heavier. The stereotypical attractive sought woman is usually white, feminine, blonde with straight-haired, skinny.

The oppositional gaze is a response to lack of representation of black people in media where black people began making independent films, “black viewers of mainstream cinema and television could chart the progress of political movements for racial equality via the construction of images, and did so.” (Hooks, 117). Hooks said that the oppositional gaze developed from slaves not being able to look slave owners in the eye, thus denying their right to gaze (115). Minstrelsy was the only kind of representation of black America before the oppositional gaze translated into film. Minstrelsy did nothing but reinforce negative stereotypes of black people by exaggerating their features and mimicking their dialect. Hooks points out that one of the most famous examples of this was Amos & Andy. Even today we still have tropes that date back to minstrelsy. With the advent of the oppositional gaze came representation but that doesn’t mean it gave appropriate or accurate representation to the black woman who have “been so abused by the gaze” and forced to be spectators (Hooks, 125). 

Shuri from the movie, The Black Panther

Slowly, we are starting to see more representation of black women due to the increase of black women entering the cinematic field as writers and directors such as Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae, Ava DuVernay, Mara Brock Akil and Lena Waithe. Most recently, Black Panther was considered revolutionary it had record box office numbers and showcased black women as dominant figures in Wakanda on an even, if not higher, playing field as men. 

The oppositional gaze and being a black female spectator is something I know all too well (being a black woman and all). Growing up, my parents were big advocates for black films. However, I found myself trying to make a lot of the movies I saw make sense for my own life. While I saw faces that looked like mine, I often saw attitudes that didn’t match mine or my mother’s. I saw exaggerated, comedic elements of the black experience and often had friends who would imitate some of the ignorance we’d seen on big screen. That feeling of “being abused by the gaze” is my own experience. 

The lack of accurate representation annoys me to my core and there is that feeling of having to settle. Women have been often objectified and had to play dumb in many of tv shows that I enjoyed – even those with black actors like Martin and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Female characters usually made dumb decisions and were the cause of a man’s downfall and I grow tired of only seeing black representation on the big screen being a reenactment of slavery or displaying the “coon” trope. I understand that the male gaze isn’t something that is just going to go away. It has a firm hold on the way that society is organized but it can be combated with more representation and inclusion in film. The awareness of actors who have been typecast into roles helps ease my mind because awareness is the first step. Even when we try to curate our film choices we have to be critical of what we are absorbing from them and try not to fall victim to some of its devices.

Male Gaze Culture

Male Gaze

The male gaze is very important in understanding women’s culture. It refers to how the world is seen via these old, rich, white male eyes. In essence, they view women as objects, not fellow human beings. Laura Mulvey, who wrote Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, heavily discusses this male gaze and the role females have been given. In the section titles “Women as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look”, Mulvey states, “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female”(Mulvey, 837). Mulvey expresses how the male role is supreme and women are passengers. Females have no say, but are meant to just be objects viewed for pleasure by the male eyes.

Lea Michele in the November 2010 GQ magazine. Photographed by Terry Richardson.

Left to Right: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears for Rolling Stone Magazine.

            In the tale of Adam and Eve, both the story and the artwork show Adam as a strong white male. However, the tale is what truly sets the stage for women being looked down upon. The story emphasizes Adam as the first human on Earth and God created Eve from Adam’s rib. Eve is the unintelligent figure that allows herself to be persuaded by the evil snake to eat an apple from the tree. This tale paints women to be nothing, but a pretty face that is meant to sit back and let the men make the decisions. It is crazy to think about how far back the reign of white male figures began.

Artwork has played a key role in the gaze of the male eye. As it has progressed there have been an immense amount of work showing full frontal shots of women, completely exposed. Even in my millennial years art depicts women as an object for pleasure. Below are two magazine, GQ and Rolling Stone, which show a series of celebrities over sexualized. In one shot we have Blake Lively licking ice cream. What do you think they are trying to symbolize in this picture? Do you think she is actually on the cover to be conservative and then talk about the political climate or is she on the cover to be sexy, talk about her show and boys? It is clear that her purpose is to talk about boys and make other women feel bad about themselves, which will push them to spend money on cosmetics (which is talked about in future readings). The GQ magazine shows Lea Michele licking a lollipop and wearing no pants, while at a locker in a High School. This glamorizes the idea of being “slutty”. It plays down her achievements in acting and the success of the show she was on at that time--Glee.

This idea of women in media brings to mind a YouTube video I saw recently. It is titled The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies on the Feministfrequency channel. The woman in the video explains the Bechdel test, which is a test that sees whether or not a movie has two or more women with names, who talk to each one another, and have conversation about something other than men. It is essentially looking to expose how so many movies do not have prominent female roles and the female dialogue is typically in regards to men, rather than important topics that support the plot. It becomes apparent that the majority of films lack these qualities, in which appear rather simplistic.  

In Ways of Seeing by John Berger, the author describes the way in which women are viewed. He says, “This nakedness is not, however, an expression of her own feelings; it is a sign of her submission to the owner’s feelings and demands”(Berger, 52). Out of all the readings, this specific quote stands out the most. It fully exposes the dynamic between the male gaze and the feminine role in society. Men have been the ones that created the art, in which shows the naked woman. It has expressed how they view women subconsciously and formed a culture, where women are naturally expected to be sexual symbols. Even in the current society, women are still overly sexualized, even though they have careers and vote like men do. For example, look at any music video because you will notice the woman singing is wearing something showing her body, while a male artist can wear gym clothes. The pictures below show rap queen Nicki Minaj dressing in short shorts with a bra, while Drake wearing lounge clothes at a concert. Why must women over sexualize themselves to sell albums and concert tickets? Why can’t their talent and mind be enough for society, like that of the male figures?

 

                       Drake performing in 2018

                                                                                                                                                 Nicki Minaj performing in 2017