The Male Gaze

The Male Gaze

I wasn't in class last Saturday and missed the discussion on the male gaze so I was a bit lost. All I really had to fall on was the readings and Google. What I found online was that the male gaze is a Feminist theory created by Laura Mulvey. From what I read online the male gaze is, "how woman are seen through the eyes of man. How woman look at themselves and how woman llok at other woman" (http://www.slideshare.net/). In the same article, it also states that Laura Mulvey,  "believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male."
The first paragraph in Ways of Seeing by John Berger, gives the reader a slight overview of how women are viewed today compared to men, "A man's presence is dependent upon the promise of power" (WoS, 45). "By contrast, a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself" (WoS, 46). Inother words, males are expected to be superior while woman are there for there looks and how they present themselves. This relates to the male gaze theory because woman it shows how women are expected to be because of the gaze.
The male gaze has made woman into sex symbols. Some woman grow up believing that to be happy or respected in society that they have to be thin and attactive, what I found compelling about The Oppositional Gaze piece is that Bell Hooks compared gaze to slavery. She mentions that the slave owners took away the slaves rights will to look at them which mde them want to look even more. Black people finally had a chance to look when movies were first introduced. They knew that the movies were made to insult them so they made movies there own, "It was the  oppositional black gaze that responded to these looking relations by developing independ black cinema" (TOG,116). Bell Hooks showed us how African Americans got away from the gaze.They were opposited to the gaze and this relates to the make gaze because it gives an example of woman can work against the male gaze.
Even with black movies, Bell hooks never expected black woman to be shown in a good light. She went spoke to black woman that watches moives and most felt like, "Most of the black women I talked were adamant that they never went to movies expecting to see compellin g representations of black females" (TOG, 119).  So even if black media was going against white media woman still couldnt get away from the male gaze. Bell Hooks was trying to say that woman should go against the male gaze the same way slavery went against their owners commends.

No one can win...

Times are changing and thngs are imporving. Even thogh the male gaze is real and effecting woman to this day the gaze is also working against man as well. We see guys in ads that are toned are tall and handsome but we don't see the overweight or thin guys. We also see extremly good woman as well. The male gaze is somehing that is seen everywhere from cartoons to news and even if its changing it's still going to effect womans lives. I believe TOG is a complelling pice because it shows what could be done to overcome the gaze, but until woman can take a full stance it will take time until it changes.

"If she was covered, would it be art?"

"Nah!!"

"The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey." The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2012. <http://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey>

Bell Hooks. In Black Looks: race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992

Berger, John. Chapters 2,3. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972. 

All Images by Google