Post #2

Male gaze is a catchy, yet destructive, method of using and portraying women through the media. In Ways of Seeing, Berger defines male gaze as "what he is capable of doing for you and to you" (Berger 46). It is destructive in the sense that the makers of the media production takes women as objects and portrays them to the viewers (usually males) to attract their attention to the women and the product that she's in contact with. This method is usually sexually portrayed and displays women as extremely vulnerable and submissive to the viewer that she's looking at through the camera. The image may be pleasing to the eyes of the male spectator, but it negatively affects women and their existences.

The ad by Dolce & Gabbana shows four men vs. one woman. Honestly, I'm not really sure what D & G is trying to advertise through this picture, but all I see is a gang of men trying to rape (?) a woman. The men are looking down at the woman as she's either expecting or resisting what she's about to get.

The ad is by Michelob (beer) despicts women as beer. The woman seems to be dancing in sexual ways.

Oppositional gaze is a challenge for black people portrayed in the media due to white supremacy. Hooks stated that black female spectators connected to the way the black female characters were portrayed in the media "as to perpetuate white supremacy and with it a phallocentric spectatorship where the woman to be looked at and desired is "white"" (Hooks 118). In other words, although white females were displayed in sexual ways to attract male gaze, black females were portrayed very minimally in the media. This is why black females have to imagine themselves as white in order for them to connect themselves with the female characters that are portrayed in the media.

After reading and discussing the articles, I now understand what "sex sells" actually means. I originally thought that the advertisements would only affect the consumers and audiences that are interested in the products. However, sex sells the products that are displayed in the advertisements, as well as (mostly) women that are portrayed as well. The idea of submissiveness and objectivity in females in the media not only affects the models, but it affects all women. Going back to the Dolce & Gabbana ad, the fact that the gang of men are holding the woman down gives an impression that women have to become objects, submissive, and powerless.

Also, these flaws are not only visibly portrayed in the media, but it is hidden in Disney movies as well. For the most part, the Disney princesses are always seeking for their prince charming to rescue them from the evil stepmother, witch, monster, etc. Even female characters in Disney movies are submissive and powerless when it comes to male characters, which gives an impression to young viewers that that is how females must act before their male counterparts. Personally, I was one of the girls who grew up admiring the princesses from Disney movies. After realizing the damage that it created in my childhood, I'm not sure what my identity is in the media...