The idea of the male
gaze is one that has been slapping people in the face for many years in popular
culture, though very few are able to see it because it is constantly reinforced
in the media we consume on a daily basis. The Male gaze is the idea that men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women see themselves as being
looked at” (Berger 47). To simplify this further; there is a way men should act
and women should act, but the way in which women act is solely dependent on men
and is taught from early childhood and reinforced throughout life within the
media that society is saturated with on a daily basis.
Berger believes that
these behavioral characteristics have always been reinforced in media. He goes
as far back European oil paintings and the birth of nude depictions. In these
paintings he makes the realization that there is a difference between the act
of being nude, versus the act of being naked. He asserts that if a woman is
depicted as naked, there is a certain quality of shame within the painting,
which alludes to the fact that the woman is made aware that she is being seen. However a nude exists only when
the woman is naked but feels as though she is alone, or perhaps does not seem
to care that she is being seen. In these paintings the power lies within the
woman and the male gaze becomes null and void; “She is not naked as she is. She
is naked as the spectator sees her” (Berger 50).
Once she becomes aware
of the gaze, she can be made shameful of it, or own it. It is here that the
power structures begin to change. As seen in the paintings, which can be
considered early forms of media, the gaze controls the acts of the subject within
the frame, but this is only if the subject of the painting allows it to be so.
As already specified, the subject alone decides if she is naked or nude
depending on how she controls the gaze. If she exhibits no shame, she is nude.
If there is a hint of shame, she is naked. So, there is power within the gaze,
but there is also power within the subject to negate this gaze. This is called
the “oppositional gaze”
In her piece on the oppositional
gaze, Bell Hooks makes the assertion that “there is power in looking” (Hooks
115). She goes on to catalog the moments where as a child she would get into
trouble when staring long and hard at adults and upon being scolded would be
told to “Look at me when I talk to you” (Hooks 115). It is in those moments
where she realized the immense power of the stare; the moment where a person “defiantly
declares: ‘Not only will I stare. I want to look to change reality.’” (Hooks
116). This is precisely what the subject of the paintings would do to control
how they are seen. If they wanted to appear naked they would be shameful and
look away from their intruders. Conversely, if they were nude, they would own
up to themselves, and their state, and look upon their intruder, welcoming the
gaze. This is a moment of negation; the male gaze becomes null and void.
All of this is true,
yet there still seems to be an alarming number of television programs, magazine
covers, and personalities that seem to have accepted the male gaze and continue
to perpetuate it in modern society. Personalities like Kim Kardashian, Kate
Upton, and innumerable lingerie models all accept the male gaze and use it to
their advantage. While this may be considered an oppositional gaze because they
are taking control of the gaze to a certain extent, they are still controlled
by the gaze in an even more powerful way. Yet these are the women that young
girls aspire to be, and it is because of this that the male gaze will continue
to live on in a never-ending cycle where little boys and girls are encouraged
to act a certain way to fit into a society saturated with images they are meant
to emulate.
Kate Upton Cat Daddy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avx8Z7U2MwY
The Answer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl85RG1kRTY
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