How Do You Escape?

The male gaze is the dominating perspective through popular culture. The reason that came into being is because western culture has always been dominated by men, including the production of cultural media. In the early fifteenth century when the nude became a popular form of art, the female was painted as an object for the male watcher. In other words the painter and the consumer were both men and everything that was put into artwork was designed specifically for that gender. Consequently, this trend has been embedded in western culture for centuries and even though it still exists today. Berger states, “but the essential way of seeing women, the essential use to which their images are put has not changed” (Berger 64). The objectification of women has finally been questioned due to contemporary feminist theorists who begun to question it. As a result some artists try to work out of this frame work but because it has strongly dominated the media, it becomes a struggle to create something outside what is considered popular culture.

The most astonishing thing is how much of an effect it has on women today. Berger shows an image of a woman who was looking into a mirror to show that all she wanted to do is catch the attention of the male spectator. She is depicted as a woman who wants to be stared at and then is told she is showing vanity. In reality the painting is the creation of the painter and is not the way a woman would have drew herself if she was the artist. This form of popular culture which has been around for centuries has a great impact on women and the attitude they have about appearance.
The oppositional gaze is about African American woman and how they have been shunned out of mainstream film and media. Hooks explains that “Mainstream film criticism in no way acknowledges black female spectatorship” (hooks 123). For decades the media, just like aforementioned, was designed for the male spectator. White women were portrayed to fit the stereotypes/ assumptions assigned to them by men. African American men were also portrayed in a way to fit the assumptions made by white men as well. However, Black men related to the films because it allowed them to do something they have always wanted but were not allowed to do, which is gaze upon white women. So even though African American men are portrayed wrongly in films they had something to relate to. Nevertheless black women were shunned out. They were not in the films and had nothing to relate to at all.
The way in which hooks escaped the media’s impact on her views and allowed her to develop the oppositional gaze is by turning to foreign films and U.S. independent cinema where the directors do not follow popular western culture (hooks 122). She realizes that male/active and female/ passive roles were not attributed to black women at all. And through this she developed her theories.
When Hooks explained that Black women could not relate to the media at all, I started to think about it and realized that if Black women were in the media during the 60’s and 70’s they were only portrayed as asexual figures. They were characterized as nannies or grandmother figures. And of course this portrait is a stereotype. She then goes on to explain that when Wesley snipes entered the arena of producing media, he used Black woman as a replacement for the character of the white woman, which is to be objects to be obtained by African American male characters.