The Power of the Spectator

The male gaze is a concept that seems to be embedded in our DNA, as Laura Mulvey indirectly suggested-whether you're a woman or a man. As a woman, we are constantly aware of the 'gaze' of the male. Hence, wearing "provocative" clothing- that we believe might stimulate the desire of the male. And as a male, desire is obtained by the pleasure in looking at the "castrated" female- who by the way is aware of her observer. The male gaze, according to Mulvey, is classified as the objectification of the female (passive) and the male (active) in cinema, and in all media. Women are constantly on display and the observer is usually a male. These preconceptions stem from our unconscious and can be dated to the era of Adam and Eve, where Eve was condemned for offering a bite of the apple to Adam, making women subservient to men- John Berger.

After reading Mulvey's essay, I've come to the realization that her theory is absolutely correct. We do live in a phallocentric society, where women are constantly objectified and men satisfy their 'needs' by obtaining pleasure through the image of the castrated women. In media, this is obvious in ads for underwear, beer, fragrance, that are targeted towards men and always involve either a woman's body part (i.e. legs, breast or butt) or a women demonstrating pleasure (i.e. sexy voice, gestures, etc). This is a popular form of vision in culture because this is what we know and have been conditioned to follow since birth. Eroticism is produced by viewing the image of the female in cinema, the male image doesn't provoke as much desire as the female because the observer is a male. The female figure is a stimulant for him and the protagonist in the film is either admirable or has similar characteristics to the predominant audience members. I am guilty of doing things or behaving a certain way to project a certain type of image. To not be categorized as different because the norm is to follow what the media project, which is that beauty determines your significance as a person.


Lacan pointed out the importance of a child recognizing his own image in the mirror for the constitution of the ego. We can relate the mirror to the movie screen because of the out of body experience. In a movie theatre we remove ourselves from reality and emerge into a world of fantasy. The same occurs in the mirror stage of infancy, when a child sees an "ideal" image.


John Berger also made a good point in his essay, Ways of Seeing, stating that "men survey women before treating them". Men and women have been conditioned to believed that a women's presence signifies the way she would like to be treated and "a man's presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies."

The gaze is something that we can't avoid. Something prohibited, yet uncontrollable in the sense that we always have a curiosity to watch someone or observe someone, whether delibaretly or not. Sometimes I find myself in the subway, wanting to look, or I can feel someone looking, however, my conscious always pulls me back and it might have something to do with my parents always telling me that it was rude to stare. How did they come to that conclusion? Their parents told them the same thing, so they just continued the pre-existing pattern. In media, we try not to stray away from what already exists. If showing beautifiul legs sells panty hose than thats what we're going to see in the ads.

When referring to the oppositional gaze, Bell Hooks discusses the unleashing of the repressed gaze. The oppositional gaze was a rebellious desire to stare and question the images we see. To use extensive criticism and face reality. The oppositional gaze allows questioning of the female image and viewing- with a critical eye- how woman are potrayed in the media and why the patterns continue. Especially, for her as a black woman who had to critique the use of race and gender in films. The oppositional gaze serves as an aggressive approach to analyzing media and not conforming to the stereotype. In order for women to break the stereotypical roles given in media women must interrogate the work by looking past race and gender for the content, form and language (Bell Hooks 122). "Black female spectatorship emerges as a site of resistance ONLY individual black women actively resist" (Bell Hooks 128). The only way to fight the system is to provide opinion and disagree with the image of women and this process begins with us. We need to gain that respect by speaking up against the devaluation and objectification of women in the media