Gazes

I would first like to say that this class has already made me more perceptive to how certain aspects of our society is actually structured and excuse my French, but it kind of sucks. 

Perspective.

The male gaze is exactly what we witness everyday. It is not just the magazines, movies, social media outlets, but it is also the cat-calling in the streets, the constant “mirror checks” on the subway, and the head-to-toe eyeballing of the women around us. I originally wanted to write about how men are pretty much responsible for the male gaze, but I think it is more interesting to also think about how women contribute to it just as much.  

This picture is from the movie “Mean Girls” written by the famous Tina Fey and I think it is the perfect (although exaggerated) example of the kind of world that women live in. The main characters, referred to as “the Plastics,” are the epitome of what all the girls in high school want to be – pretty, popular, and what all the boys want. This movie illustrates a concept Berger discusses: “From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.” (46) In the movie, all these high school girls constantly eye each other, judge each other based on looks, and do what they can to catch the eyes of all these high school boys. How messed up is it that even before high school, girls are actively creating this kind of environment where they become the passive subjects of the male gaze.

As an avid movie watcher, I now look back on some of my most favorite movies and it is really interesting to see how many of them are good examples of how the male gaze becomes a reflection as he can easily identify with the main characters on screen. One of my favorite movies, Anchorman, is a comedy with a humor that can be considered offensive, but I feel this one scene illustrates an idea that Mulvey brings up about how by being able to identify with the confident usually male protagonist, the filmmaker is “giving (the male viewer) a satisfying sense of omnipotence” (838). I think this is one of the reasons the male gaze can be found everywhere – it is constantly perpetuated in movies, television, etc.

On the contrary, women can also identify with other women on screen. In bell hooks’ piece, she interviews a black woman about her experience at the movie theater and she writes, “to experience pleasure, Ms. Pauline sitting in the dark must imagine herself transformed, turned into the white woman portrayed on the screen.” (121). With the oppositional gaze being a misconception of the role of black women on screen, hooks places the argument that in this way, black women are there simply to accentuate the white actresses and is a way to “perpetuate white supremacy” (119). This also connects to what Mulvey discusses is one of the central pleasures of cinema – the ability to project one’s look onto the characters in a movie. The question, however, remains to be: to what extent can women really get a “satisfying sense of omnipotence” if the female characters are merely supporting roles and even if they are the main characters, how they “…hold the look, play to and signify male desire” (837).

In class we discussed the topic of cat calling in the streets. From personal experience and what seemed to be true for most of the women in class, it is not a pleasant feeling. I would feel like an animal almost like a piece of meat put on display somewhere. I recently came across the following picture on Tumblr and I found it ironic that the caption read something along the lines of teaching our sons how to respect a woman’s body. There are too many solutions to resolve these kinds of issues and even then, I feel like each solution comes with their own flaws. For example, I am definitely not one to say that women should dress conservatively to avoid cat calling, but then others will also argue that women dressing provocatively brings on the cat calling. Either way, I feel that it is going to take the initiative from both parties to resolve these kinds of issues.

I am definitely much more aware of how pervasive both the male and oppositional gaze are a part of our everyday lives and it actually makes me a little more critical of all the media I come in contact with – from YouTube videos my friends share on Facebook to new movie trailers.