WHAT IF WE WERE BLIND?

What kind of society would it be, if we were blind? How would society work if humans lost the sight sense? Maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about appearances. One big issue that our society faces is the “male gaze”. As John Berger tells us “men act” in society (Pg.47), he makes his own path, he has come to define the aesthetics of our society.  It is the power of the male scrutiny that makes women “play” an act to its viewer, the male surveyor. I believe throughout eras women have developed an “artificial instinct” to be surveyed of herself to the surveyor. We live in a world of images. Most of our information enters through our eyes, and we haven’t learned to “read” these images. The problem comes when the images are used for a power structure to persuade and control a way of living. The American culture, in my opinion, bases on consumerism, the idea that we can buy happiness. We, women, are seduced visually, and as the surveyed need to please the gaze.

One example I try to explain myself is Marilyn Monroe. She was the most objectified female during the 50’s. She became to be a symbol, an icon, an example to women to how they should look and act. Until this day she still is. From her body to her personal life, girls become saturated with her “made up” essence. What it intrigues me is that we all know she internally suffered due to the male gaze, and despite her suffering we see her as a martyr of beauty.

The alternate to male perspective is the female gaze. It is our saying. We become the surveyor; it is the reclaiming of our representation in the visuals or within ourselves.  In the video we saw in class, Bell Hooks mentioned that criticism is a tool to find one self. She encourages critical thinking to not conform with what is given to us. “ It is this critical practice that enables production of feminist film theory...” (Pg.131).

Using the example of Marilyn Monroe, she became to be an alternative to size zero models. Although I am still undecided weather she is a healthy alternative, knowing that the male gaze brought her to us. There is a thin line we can get caught up in the nonsense of typecasting. I feel we should accept and love the fact that some of us are born (biologically) thicker than other or thinner.

In my experience, my single mother was my surveyor.  I grew up without a male model in my life, so I came to experience the male gaze outside home. It was frightening at first although I forced myself to find alternatives as a survival skill. In high school I let photography speak for me, a silent expression I saw as comforting.  Years later I found myself working with fashion photographers for my income. I got to see the manipulation of computers on bodies, the ego trip and, why not, the art of wardrobe. It opened my eyes to the industry and to our society of images. I still find myself being seduced by the “exclusiveness” I can get working in the field. Although I decide I want to be part of the oppositional gaze and give alternatives to other women. I wont let my self-discovery (critical practice) rest.

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin, 1972. Print.
Hooks, Bell. "The Oppositional Gaze." Black Looks: race and