The Gaze

The male gaze creates the image of women as being passive, and submissive. Unfortunately, pop culture enhances the perception of what the ideal woman should be like. Media caters to the male viewership, and creates content for the purpose of mens liking. In our society, a women who steps out of her “bound” is seen as rebellious, dramatic, and even an opposer of men. Speaking up comes with the baggage of critiques and hateful views towards women. The male gaze makes it difficult for women to be seen as more than just a “sight”. Media goes hand in hand with how women are seen and treated in their daily lives, and ultimately creates a barrier between the equality of sexes in both media and real life.

Pop culture gears to the attention of men, but makes a profit from the consumption of women. How ironic, right? Advertisements, especially, over sexualize and objectify woman in order to get their product to sell because after all sex sells. Ads create an image of happiness if the woman agrees into purchasing it, and it is clearly for the intent of satisfying a man. Both ads gear to sexual activities, and being seen as a "display" for men to enjoy.

Now open? Model with her legs open for American Apparel Ad.

Ad for Knee High Socks. Naked girl models socks. Why does she have to be completely naked to sell socks?

    We also experience the male gaze through television shows like Mad Men. It is unfortunate that television shows like Mad Men represents the most patriarchal society ever, and still gets high ratings! Don Draper is a powerful man in the advertisement business, but he is also a womanizer aside from having two children, and a wife. However, Joan Holloway is not taking seriously because she is a woman! In the show, Joan is unable to be the person she wants to be because the advertisement business is dominated by men. She has to go through obstacles in order to get some respect from the men she works with.

The attention Joan gets from men makes it difficult for her to be taken seriously. 

Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” discusses the ways in which film reflects the position of woman as erotic objects in both the storyline, and the audience. It has become a "socially established interpretation of sexual difference which controls images, erotic ways of looking and spectacle. (837)”  Ultimately, the woman’s role in the storyline is either as an erotic object to the characters within the story, or to the audience. For example, a woman is appealing to the audience because the man has possession over what he wants. Woman are seen in film, but their role does not enhance the development of the story. It is as if a woman is like a prop in order to make the man seem more masculine, and powerful. Mulvey's point of view goes hand in hand with the character on Mad men. Joan is a confident woman, and has authority in her own way. However, stays away from men who seem to seek only one thing from her.

 Mulvey explains what is seen in film, as a white woman, as opposed to Bell Hooks. Bell Hooks discusses what is NOT seen in film, especially for woman of color like herself. She notices that woman are seen in film, but she cannot relate to those woman because they are not like her. She coins the term “oppositional gaze”. She looks but she does not see people who are like her. "Spaces of agency exist for black people, wherein we can both interrogate the gaze of the Other but also look back, and at one another, naming what we see. The "gaze" has been and is a site of resistance for colonized black people globally (116)." Like Bell Hooks, I can relate to the oppositional gaze. I see woman on television, and in film but they are not like me. There are limited amount of Latinas in popular media, and it is usually the same people acting in the same roles.

In Ways of Seeing, John Berger discusses the hypocrisy of perceiving a woman as vain. “You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure. (51)" The dominating male gaze creates the perception of submissiveness which objectifies the women, and sees her as just a “sight”. Berger explains how woman are conscious of being looked at, however are also being judged when they look at themselves. Media creates the content, however judges those who reveal too much or express their sexualities. There is a judgement zone in any little thing a woman does in the media. 

Example of woman looking into mirror. VANITY!?

Work Cited

Laura Mulvey: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

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

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