"Patriarchy has no gender." - Bell Hooks
Although there exists different accounts of when patriarchy originated as a social construct, its presence nowadays in society and media is prevalent and undeniable. Characteristics such as power, control, dominance, intelligence, and competitiveness are credited as "male" attributes, while sensibility, compassion, submission, and helplessness are attributed to female roles and characters. Furthermore, the ubiquity and omnipresence of patriarchal norms in western societies for over decades tunneled its declaration of normalcy within families, on television, and in the music we are exposed to. This, in turn, created what is known as the male gaze - catering to white male heterosexuals - which further developed a counter reaction, the oppositional gaze.
The assumption that the sole spectator, worthy of pleasure and acknowledgement, of a working piece of art is a male, is the definition of a male gaze. Be that work of art: a painting, an image, a film, or a music video, the client being served is a heterosexual male who appreciates the subtle dominance of a male character/image over a female figure. In Ways of Seeing, Berger explains,"Men survey women before treating them. Consequently, how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated. To acquire some control over this process, women must contain it and interiorize it." (Berger, 46). And while social constructs and pervasive ideologies are bred both by individuals and corporations, one cannot dismiss or rather neutralize both powers and place them on the same level. That's why when individuals attempt to counterfeit these pervasive images, sometimes, just sometimes it has a much more longing effect. Remember the woman who recreated Dan Bilzerian's overly sexualized and women-objectified images?
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| Davison reversing gender roles and challenging our perception |
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| The oppositional gaze is that of criticizing and analyzing and not looking away |
"Not only will I stare, I want my look to change reality." - Bell Hooks
On the other hand, the power of acknowledging the suppressed right of observing and acting on that power is what became known as the oppositional gaze. The power (and right) to observe, criticize, and analyze what is otherwise fed to our consciousness and labeled as the norm. Hooks mentions a couple of examples in The Oppositional Gaze where she mentions filmmaker Julie Dash's film Illusions, which "identifies the terrain of Hollywood cinema as a space of knowledge production that has enormous power.[...] she offers the black female spectator representations that challenge stereotypical notions that place us outside the realm of filmic discursive practices"(Hooks, 129). Another example of practicing the oppositional gaze can be seen in Passion of Remembrance, where two black women, frustrated with subjectivity of their bodies and sexist remarks, decide to challenge the perception of their own bodies; "Disrupting conventional racist and sexist stereotypical representations of black female bodies, these scenes invite the audience to look differently. They act to critically intervene and transform conventional filmic practices, changing notions of spectatorship" (Hooks, 130).
Race and religion have been an integral part of my identity, yet I never identified with images I perceived in movies or television. In The Oppositional Gaze, Hooks says:"It is difficult to talk when no one is listening, when you feel as though a special jargon or narrative has been created that only the chosen can understand" -- these few words sum up my perception of images I'm bombarded with on a daily basis (Hooks, 125). Though I was born and spent more than half of my childhood growing up in an African country, I am not considered African American, and when it comes to filling out identification forms, if there isn't a Middle Eastern box to check, I only have the choice of checking White as my ethnicity, even though I'm not. More so, when I turn on the television or read the news, covering or veiled women are described as "oppressed" - a term I never fully came to comprehend. Who decided if I was oppressed or not and based on what evidence, a scarf? Why are they talking on my behalf?
As a fashion lover, the frustration was soothed with rise of Instagram personas that combined faith and fashion. Fashionistas such as Leena, Dina Torkia, and Mariah Idrissi continue to inspire me. Additionally, more covered woman have been seen on different platforms including Mipsterz, Coming of Faith, and the sharing of more intimate stories like Love, Inshallah. And while there's certainly more work to be done in terms of diversified representations of race, religion, and sexuality, I can't undermine the little progress I see in the mediums being presented.
Works Cited
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972. Print.
Hooks, Bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. Print.
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