Seeing and Being Seen

Berger, hooks, and Mulvey all describe  society as predicated on viewing. We are the media we consume, but more importantly, this viewing culture translates to an ogling dissection of one another, particularly of marginalized groups. Berger posits this as the male gaze, or the objectification of the female form and femininity overall, while hooks discusses the oppositional gaze, the response to people of color living under the microscope. In both situations, gaze is equated with power.  

The power of the male gaze, of course, is a result of the patriarchy. Men are the privileged group in the phallocentric society, while the woman is presented as a placeholder, as a “ lynch pin to the system: it is her lack that produces the phallus as a symbolic presence” (Mulvey, 833).  In this world, women’s value is what can be done to them, as they exist to be looked at, and thus must always look at themselves. The idea is that women must be aware of how they come off to men and must act ‘ladylike’ and obedient, as control over their own behavior is all they really have. It seems also that she must feel guilty for these actions, as men have defined it as vanity. Berger pinpointed this hypocrisy when he wrote, “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 depicted for your own pleasure” (51). 

In modern media, this idea is highlighted (makeup pun) by the conversation around ‘the natural look.’ Time and time again, ‘woke’ men talk about how women don’t need so much makeup and make fun of women’s getting ready rituals. This occurs at the same time that a) the beauty industry preys upon insecurities perpetuated by the male gaze and b) memes are made at the horrors of a bare-faced woman, as seen below. The reaction to this culture is the ‘natural’ look, which according to this article, can take up to an hour (!!!). Another example of this comes from the movie Bridesmaids, when Annie gets out of bed to do her hair, brush her teeth, and put on some light makeup before getting back into bed, so as to appear that she ‘woke up like this’ to the man beside her. While memes and movies are funny, the fact that women are pressured to make this effort while having off as effortless is anything but laughable. 

"Are you sick?" "You look tired."

In terms of personal experience, I feel the male gaze criticizing my sexuality. As a bisexual woman, I cannot begin to recount the number of times I have been asked for a threesome (a lot, like a lot a lot).  When I have said no, I have been told I’m doing it for attention, that it’s a phase, that it isn’t a real sexuality: the list goes on. This experience is mirrored by the following post that came up on my feed a couple weeks ago: 

Michael sucks.

Michael’s behavior is not in anyway acceptable, but it isn’t surprising, considering that the main presentation of bisexuality has been in the porn industry. Bisexual women are a huge trope in porn, as they are presented  “as sexual objects for the hegemonic straight cis male gaze, while directly or covertly appealing to a quasi-pornographic fantasy of a (two females and one male) threesome, and while also reassuring us that these women are not really bisexual, but are simply behaving so for the satisfaction of the presumed male spectator” (Eisner, 2013). 

While bisexual erasure in the media is quite problematic, hooks would say it is an all too familiar reality for black female spectators. These women “have had to develop looking relations within a cinematic context that constructs our presence as absence,” (hooks, 118) an absence similar to Mulvey’s theory of women sans phallus. According to hooks, “even when representations of black women were present in film, our bodies and being were there to serve- to enhance and maintain white womanhood as object of phallocentric gaze,” (119) and this is evidenced by the brutish, bitchy portrayal of the character Sapphire. In contemporary media, this negative portrayal can be seen in the attacks hurled at Serena Williams, as well as in the fact that the Nicki Minaj v. Cardi B altercation was painted as trashy, meanwhile the white housewives on Bravo get paid to do the same thing. And when the presentation isn’t totally skewed, recognition for black women’s talent is limited, as evidenced by Regina King’s complete shock when she won an Emmy for Lead Actress in “Seven Seconds.”

Of course, hooks’ focus is not on this woe is us narrative, but on defying it. She described her oppositional gaze as a refusal to identify with either the victim or the perpetrator, writing, “not only would I not be hurt by the absence of black female presence, or the insertion of violating representation, I interrogated the work, cultivated a way to look past race and gender for aspects of content, form, language” (122). In practice, this refusal to shrink into the background once more can be seen in the Instagram hashtag #blackgirlmagic, throughout Janelle Monae’s music, and in the Cannes red carpet protest. 

Janelle Monae's "Pynk" gives the finger to the make gaze and celebrates femininity and the black female form in particular (also these are really cool pants tbh)

While I do not necessarily connect to the oppositional gaze, it has restructured my idea of my role in media. I cannot deny the pressures of the patriarchy, but I can push back. I can look back and make eye contact with those that wish to belittle me with their stares. I can curate my media consumption so as to focus on the facets that attack the patriarchy for the benefit of everyone, because “there is more to looking than I had been exposed to” (hooks, 127). Most importantly, I can support black female spectators. hooks wrote, “it is difficult to speak when you feel no one is listening,” (125), and thus it is time for us all to listen. 

Citations 

Berger, John. “Ways of Seeing.” London: BBC Enterprises, 1972: 45 -64 

Eisner, Sherri. “Bi Notes for a Bisexual Revolution.” Berkeley: Seal Press, 2013. 

hooks, bell. “Black Looks: Race and Representation.” Boston: South End Press, 1992: 115-31

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-44.