Beautiful Prize

For as far back as we have record women have always been an object and looked at as some "sight" as Berger puts it. The better your body is, the sexier your look is, the more curves a woman has, the more more you are willing to show off your body, the more limelight you are going to recieve in the media. The more an ad or cover of a mens magazine gets you to have that feeling the picture is staring at you, the better that person is doing there job. This depiction of women forms the "spectator-owner" (berger, 56) relationship.

The simple reason that the male gazed is so important, is thats what sells. Women are affected by the male gaze on adaily routine, admingly or not. From the heels and the fancy suit dress with pinstripes that makes your body look better then the plain black suit, to the gym memberships and hours logged on that treadmill. All of these are done to ultimatley obtain that beautiful prize, to obtain spectators and to get that tag, "to-be-looked-at-ness"(Mulvey 837). The male gaze has and always will be a major influence to the mass media and and women are perceived.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum and with that comes the oppositional gaze. Bell Hook, who focuses perdominantly the black females, for a "rebelious desire for the oppositional gaze. She sates " Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality." This is big step for the female aspect of cinema and black females, as they were not as "wanted" as white females in cinema. For example in the film, Girl 6, when Tarrantio talks about making the best African- American film ever and then puts a blonde wig on the black star actor to make her look more "barbie like."