If you gaze long into a woman, the woman will gaze back into you

One day, me and my girlfriend walk to the train station, and she turns and says “don't you hear what they are saying?”. I respond “what are they saying?” She says “they're sexually harassing me and staring at me on the street. Can't you see it?” I responded “I never really paid attention, no”. Living in Bushwick, Brooklyn I think it is inevitable. Then I started to pay more attention to what was going on and people, and I realized. Whenever a good looking woman passes by, the locals that hang out in the neighborhood turn their head as she passes by. I could tell you the dictionary definition of the male gaze, but I think this describes it much better.

Gaze basically puts the woman in place as an object while the “spectator”, the male, gazes upon her. The main reason why this “head turn” occurs is that the media made us to think that we have control over the woman and puts the image of a naked woman in our head automatically. I honestly don't blame these people for staring at my girlfriend. We are so brainwashed to desire the female body and the “taboo”, we can't help to look at woman the way we do.

Berger puts this dilemma into simple words "men act and women appear" (Berger, 47) He explains that most women's role in the media is very passive and static, because they are just being looked at. Men, on the other hand are considered to be the main "target audience" and their minds being driven by the gaze. This also affect the woman to become more aware of themselves because some of them accept the gaze. Being in the center of attention is a huge thrill after all.

A very recent example of the gaze is something called bubbling. Bubbling basically takes the photo of a woman in a bikini, puts a layer of colored filter on the image, and cuts out smartly placed bubbles in the image so that the cut outs would only show the naked parts of the woman, while the clothed parts would be covered with non-bubble parts, giving the spectator the illusion that the woman is naked.

Oppositional gaze is a term by Bell Hooks, arguing that the black woman in cinema should reject the objectification, and instead she should criticize it. She points out that the very same gaze that made white woman such objects today, should not do the same for black women, and they shouldn't let them be a part of the male gaze, however, they should use the oppositional gaze to make their own point.