Image of "controversial" Katy Perry on Sesame Street :
Link of Huffington Post discussing Tyler Perry reaction tweets : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/tyler-perry-movies_n_1881730.html#slide=1518584
The male gaze is a weapon of domination that is used against women in movies and media. In "Visual Pleasure," Mulvey writes that "the man controls the film phantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense..." (Mulvey 838). In European paintings, such as the Ingres painting discussed in the Berger text that is compared with the modern magazine, the purpose of painting women is to allow the male spectator to feel he is empowered sexually and psychologically. Berger states, "The woman's sexual passion needs to be minimized so that the spectator may feel that he has the monopoly of such passion" (Berger 55). I remember watching news reports where people talked about the status of women in pornography videos and magazines. Women are almost always staged in a position of sexual submission and humiliation for male pleasure.
The oppositional gaze is what Bell Hooks describes as the look of rebellion against white supremacy. It originated from slaves being punished for looking at their owners (Hooks 115). Hooks implies that people must use critical analysis when viewing images of people of color on television and movies. I see the oppositional gaze as being a state of mind in which the viewer must use their experiences to ask if what they are viewing is a true representation of culture.
The reason for the development of the oppositional gaze is that it is a reaction to the misrepresentation of black women in the media industry. The women Hooks spoke with were getting fed up with all of the stereotypical and false stories that Hollywood displayed. Hooks then cites Ann Kaplan's work on psychoanalysis as evidence that feminist film theorists have not been acknowledging racial differences in media (Hooks 124).
I have come to understand these structures as a series of societal events that have taken over civilization over time. I did not know about the paintings and their true purposes of male domination. The idea of vanity and the Rubens painting were also interesting points about women being the subject of blame and immoral seduction.
I see my role and identity as a writer who can acknowledge the discrimination that goes on in the Hollywood machine of movies and stereotypes. I am a consumer of media and I always seek the the indie, provocative, and underestimated stories out there. We, as consumers, could urge our friends not to consume stereotypical material and to think twice about false images. It seems very difficult to undo generations of biased media but I see that, in Bell Hooks' work and other diasporic forums, there are seeds of change.
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