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.