Male Gaze and Oppositional Gaze

The male gaze is a term that has been used to describe how various forms of media, such as painting, television, and movies, assume the male perspective. In most of these forms, the perspective that is being used is not openly revealed; one must recognize the demographic that the media is trying to reach. From Renaissance nudes to 21st century car advertisements, it's very clear that media calls for the attention of those in power, and unfortunately in the world that we have lived in thus far, that has not included women, especially not women of color. Through the writings of Laura Mulvey, John Berger, and bell hooks, we can uncover the truth behind the Male Gaze, as well as the Oppositional Gaze, as described by hooks, and see why the Male Gaze is a pervasive form of vision in popular culture.

The Male Gaze is the easiest demographic to notice in popular culture. An excellent example of media using the Male Gaze is one that seems the most counterintuitive. It is the choice of advertisements in fashion magazines. Tom Ford, Dolce and Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, all of these designers aim to influence the female market, usually affluent females between the ages of 25 and 40. But, if you take a look at some of the advertisements that they have put out, one can notice that they are trying to influence women by having them appeal to the fantasies of men (something that is anything but original and unique, but still notable.) Use these ads as examples:

From treating women's bodies as objects to overtly displaying sex (and RAPE) in advertisements, it's quite certain that designers who cater to the female form through their clothing have a severe lack of respect for the female form in society. As Mulvey mentioned in Film: Psychology, Society and Ideology, the media caters to the Male Gaze by displaying men as active and women as passive (Mulvey, 837). She also writes “women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness,” (Mulvey, 837). This all suggests that women, in the eyes of popular culture, are to be seen and not heard; they are to submit to the “phantasies” of men and that in the end, it’s their fault for being looked at. “Why does she look so enticing? No one says that she has to dress that way. She’s dressing that way for attention,” is what some members of society say about the objectification of the female form. But in truth, WE tell her to look that way. We validate a woman’s worth by how tantalizing she is to males and how challenging she makes it for herself to be won.

It was mentioned previously that the media aims to attract the attention of those in power (males). As Berger discussed in Ways of Seeing, “Men watch women. Women watch themselves being looked at,” (Berger, 47). This notion of being looked at, of being watched, is the key to understanding the power of the spectator. bell hooks speaks of the power of spectatorship in Black Looks: Race and Representation. hooks describes the viewership of the colored woman to be the least powerful audience in society. The Oppositional Gaze is the denouncement of the stereotypical representation of colored women in media by colored women in society. hooks encourages this criticism and rejection of representation by presenting the idea that the colored woman has a job to go against the prevailing notion that she is a spectacle to be gawked at. Black women don’t have to worry about punishment brought on by looking and have to know that they are have to look the media in the eye and criticize what is seen. They are responsible for representing themselves and to not let anyone else stereotype them into false roles.

The Male Perspective is the wall that subliminally obstructs the public from seeing the truth behind their favorite paintings and magazine advertisements. The Oppositional Gaze gives power back to the most neglected faction of society and provides a sense of agency within its members. I have come to understand the structure of the Male Gaze as unfair and restricting to the potential of women in society. With the male perspective as the norm in media, we as women will have to fight endlessly to defend our place as equals. In the eyes of the public, a woman defaults as the submissive individual; she is dainty and she can always be won with the right kind of wooing and persuasion. A woman does not have her own voice. She must earn a voice through becoming a wife, a mother, or a woman in a “masculine” role. She cannot simultaneously be a mother who bakes cookies and wears sundresses while still being a disciplinarian and the matriarch of a household. A woman is either silently passive or she is trying to be a man. The objectifying displays of women in various forms of media leave little to no wiggle room for women to overthrow the patriarchal paradigm of our society. This is not a factor that I am willing to accept lying down. I will not allow my potential to be stifled at the hands of some median heterosexual Caucasian male who somehow got a hold of the freethinking world. I am not here to be subservient to anyone. I am not an object. I am a female who, through determination and dedication, expects the same compensation as any male for the same caliber of work. At the end of all this, we as a society must educate ourselves with scholars outside of the traditional cannon and, as women, we must represent who we are in a just light. This is the only way that the pervasive Gaze can be blinded once and for all.

This is a good video that explains the male gaze particularly well http://youtu.be/0lxLhcmhPp0

This is one of my favorite paintings of ALL time. It is Grand Odalisque (1814) by Jean August Dominique Ingres. I've always thought that the colors and composition were beautiful but I never really thought about the story behind the painting as much as I did once I finished reading Berger's Ways of Seeing. She's a concubine (odalisque) who is waiting for her suitor (or master, whatever you prefer). I never realized that she was only there waiting for a man. That took away a small chunk of interest from the painting. I still think that it's one of the most beautiful paintings to be created in the 19th century in France. I just always thought that the proportions were strange and that it was unusual that her boob was jutting out of her underarm, but HEY Ingres was French so he must know a thing or two about fancy paintings, right?

Advertisement Post 3...June Marie Davis

Images are used to sell, promote or evoke a feeling.  Advertisements generate responses be them positive, negative, but mainly for economic purposes.  Behind advertising images are the subtexts to deeper issues that affect gender, cultures and social classes.  Some of these issues include sexism, racism and power. The images below are to advertise jewelry, but the actual message that it is promoting is degrading women.  It suggests that if a woman wants to get a ring; and the ultimate goal marriage, she must be sexually available to a man.  The second image equates a woman’s physical attributes to food. The third image suggests male dominance and the position of a woman is beneath the man. The fourth image depicts not only the hierarchy of the white man, but of racism.  The advertisements mask the subliminal messages the advertisers send to consumers that are damaging and offensive.

 

 Bordo states, “It is the created image that has the hold on our most vibrant, immediate sense of what is, of what matters, of what we must pursue for ourselves” (Bordo, pg. 104).  This statement suggests that what we as consumers see, is what appeals to us; what we believe to be correct. That women need to be “available”, men are in control and that food is as important to look appetizing, just like his woman. 

We as consumers feed into media consumption and spend millions of dollars perpetuating a cycle that allows big corporations to continually demean women, cultures and social classes.  When I look at ads that place women as objects of pleasure and only good for sexual conquest, I recall John Berger’s work where he states, “men look and women appear” (Berger, pg. 47).   That statement holds true to past and popular culture critiques on advertisements, where women are still objects and men dominating.  It seems that we as a society have come so far, women’s rights, racism, but when you look at the images that we buy into today, I question how far have we really come?  How do we, how do I change the way marketing executives come up with the ads that they do?

 

Some alternatives to perpetuating advertisements that demean human beings, be it by gender, race or social class is by boycotting those products.  To publicly say "NO" to the mass consumption that has been fed to us as a society by big corporations.  Another alternative would be to petition big corporations to work alongside organizations that promote awareness of the damaging effects and the messages that big corporations have been and who are continuing to promote a false way of life.

http://www.unenticed.com/english.php?title=influence+of+advertising&section=advertising

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201008/what-does-advertising-do


 

Advertising

Even as someone not in the advertising industry you may be aware of the old adage “Sex sells” and indeed, looking at advertising today, that seems more than ever a go to strategy. Using women's bodies to sell merchandise appeals to the male gaze and women's insecurities, rather than attempt to connect with consumers on a higher level.  This perpetuates the patriarchal culture that is already deeply ingrained in our society, such as the idea of biological essentialism “the belief in the inborn inferiority of women”  (Tyson, page 83).

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When considering advertising aimed at women, including affluent women, these are positioned in a way to keep a woman in her place. As Gloria Steinem recounts in her essay “Sex, Lies and Advertising”, when presented with evidence that the readers of Ms. Magazine, a feminist publication, would be good customers for Estée Lauder the president of the company, Leonard Lauder admitted “Estée Lauder is selling a ‘a kept-woman mentality.’” (Steinem, page 119). This is just another example of manipulating the public and women’s perception of themselves, “She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life. Her own sense of being herself is surplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another”, (Berger, page 46).

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Keeping women as objects to be seen can have disturbing consequences not only in the self esteem of young girls and women but also in how this objectification can be taken by certain men. Seeing women as nothing but objects to be used can be used as justification or even part of the thought process of violence against women. 

This is not to say that all men, even all men who do indeed objectify women, will be violent criminals.  But it is something to consider. Do images like this....

 directly lead to headlines like this? Probably not. However the subtext of ads that portray women as objects to be consumed is a  dangerous one. 

Yes, I'm looking at you, PETA.

Advertising strategies that do not uphold the normative power structure, or boldly challenge it are often critiqued or not as successful. Based on a study conducted by their parent company, Uniliever, in 2004, Dove began their Campaign for Real Beauty, a marketing initiative to promote the natural beauty of real women in all shapes, races, and ages and self esteem in young girls. The campaign consisted of commercials, viral videos, and advertisements.

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However certain billboards from this campaign received criticism and the general public was not as receptive as hoped. One situated in Times Square featured an average American woman and people were asked to vote whether she was “Fat or Fab” eventually the fat votes outnumbered the fab ones.

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In a promising sign that pop culture is moving in a positive direction,  there has been a recent shift in TV ads featuring genders beyond the typical binaries, such as a Kindle spot that portrays a heterosexual married couple and a homosexual one. Also a popular Doritos ad shows a dad and his friends dressing up like princesses. But these examples deal with gender and sexual orientation. Issues of body image and maintaining patriarchy still hold up to the old standard.

Sources:
Critical Theory Today, Lois Tyson.
Ways of Seeing, John Berger.
Sex, Lies and Advertising, Gloria Steinem.
 

Advertising Post...

For a great amount of years now advertising agencies have been targeting the "popular audience", which they believe to be men even when the product was intended for women or the household as a whole. Not only were they targeting men but white men in particular forgetting about the other groups in the world, females and non-whites, creating issues of sexism, race and power. In addition to all this, they were also representing women as sexual objects resulting in the insecurity of women.

On the image to the right, the viewer can see a man with his back to the viewer, sitting on a chair with a woman across his laps and his hands raised as if he was going to hit her. The ad reads in big bold letters, "If your husband ever finds out..." The ad is meant to promote a certain coffee that is said to be fresher, but it is actually promoting other things. It is promoting abuse towards women and power for men. With the image of the man and the woman the viewer may be lead to think that a man hitting a woman is okay. With the words of "if your husband ever finds out" they are basically telling women that they should be afraid of their husbands. Is this really what we want to teach our children? Susan Douglas writes,  "Along with our parents, the mass media raised us, socialized us, entertained us, comforted us, deceived us, discipline us, told us what we could do and what we couldn't do."

In many ads women are depicted very sexually in order to sell a product. In the image above the viewer can see a light skin female model who appears to be topless being embraced by a male model. On the bottom right hand corner the product being promoted is shown. The woman in the picture is light skin with fine feature and blue eyes as well as skin from the thickness of her upper arm. This can lead a woman to think that in order to get a man she has to be like the model shown above. This can be considered to be racist because where do you leave all the African, Hispanics, Asian, and other females women that do not look like this. This can also lead to body image concerns and insecurities of a lot of women. A great amount of women perform serious amounts of cosmetic surgeries as well as starve themselves to change their appearance and look more like the women shown on ads and runways.

Through advertising, society is showing us how they want us to be or look and how they want us to act. Bell Hooks wrote in her Black Looks: Race and Representation book, "Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality." By looking at these ads and expressing our feelings towards them and not accepting this as okay one can possibly change the way of advertising as well as become the oppositional gazers. Another way that we can change the ways of advertising is by boycotting these products and again expressing our feeling towards the ads letting the companies know that we wont take this. By raising our voice and expressing our feelings we can possibly gain the attention of advertisers and change all this.