The Male and Oppositional Gaze

The concept of “male gaze”, which was introduced by film critic and author Laura Mulvey, is that women are viewed and represented in society is based on how primarily straight, white men view them. To summarize their vision, women are seen as not much more than a sexual object that is basically there to provide some sort of pleasure for a man. As a society, a large part of what we come to understand and view as the norm comes from a pattern and routine of viewing, which then repeats and further instills itself into our routines. Because of the long standing patriarchal format of our society, the treatment and attitudes towards women and what men deem to be their purpose has remained upheld. While of course there is progression that comes along with the awareness of such problems, it is not hard to recognize the ways in which the male gaze still asserts itself in our popular media.

From an early age, I have always been a big fan of movies. I appreciate all genres of movies, from action, to drama, to comedies. However, my favorite genre of them all is horror. I don’t even necessarily like being scared, but I love the adrenaline that comes along with watching horror movies, and facing any fears that I may have. Unfortunately, my favorite genre of movie is one of the most extreme in its implements of the “male gaze”. When talking about film in general, Mulvey explains that women function on two levels, “as erotic object for characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey, 383) Basically, a woman is destined to be viewed sexually because that is just her purpose. One movie that comes to mind is House of Wax, starring the iconic Paris Hilton. However, because Paris Hilton was one of the most famous young celebrities of the time, her role in the film was basically just to be hot. SPOILER alert: she gets killed right after giving a striptease for her boyfriend and then running from the killer in her underwear, which is basically the movie’s way of saying “You’ve served your purpose, now we’re done with you.”

Still from Friday the 13th, where the girl character is the only one being shown to take off actual clothing.

In Berger’s writing, he also says “Women are depicted in quite a different way from men - not because the feminine is different from the masculine - but because the 'ideal' spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.” (Berger, 64) Going back to horror films and the horror genre, one movie that comes to mind that really displays this Friday the 13th. During one scene, three of the counselor's (2 girls and boy) decide to play strip monopoly during a rainy night. When it comes to the guy stripping, they only show him taking off his boot (later a shot returns to him and he already has his shirt off, but they never show the actual action of him taking it off) However, when it comes to the girls taking their shirts off, the camera focuses solely on them. Because of the thought that horror movies has the biggest audience in males, the movie is made to cater to them, hence the “male gaze”.

The “oppositional gaze” is a way of resisting the one sided opportunity of “gaze” which is often occupied by white people. Instead, the “oppositional gaze”, which was developed by bell hooks, is a means of highlighting the lack of representation of particularly black women because of the way that they are stereotyped. Instead of viewing what black women see in the media regarding black women as a mirror of themselves, they use the “oppositional gaze”, which hooks described as being 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) The strength of these women in particular comes from the fact that they see how they are being presented to society, but are aware enough in who they are and how they act to ignore what is being shown.

After learning about these different structures, the way in which I view media has definitely changed. I started out already cynical about what is often showed to me, and am now even more so. The grounds of our media and media consumption is rooted in a patriarchy, and while I believe of course progress has been made, there is still a long way to go. However, I think the most inspiring part of these readings was learning how the “oppositional gaze” is utilized. In addition to the patriarchal root in media, there is also the very prominent white supremacy and whitewashing of our media. Unfortunately, because of this history, those in charge of the media and what we are seeing don’t make it easy for everyone to be represented and represented accurately, especially black women. However, by encouraging an “oppositional gaze” in order to disregard the nonsense that is being projected, it is inspiring to see how women are choosing/not choosing what is their so-called representation(or highlighting the lack thereof).