The gaze

The ways that audiences view media, is not just a singular vision. It is in fact more complicated and much more pervasive. Women view, understand, critique media, different than men. Women have been presented in media as subjects, objects, enhancements to the male presence but almost never as l individuals with feelings, or purpose of their own. These Media potrayments of women have lead to the creation of what is called an oppositional gaze, a way of viewing, seeing, and critiquing which differs from the gaze of men, and provides alternatives vision to counter the unitary vision of the male gaze.

Media for the most part has always potrayed women in certain images. The image potrayed on screen is the image that men want to see, and envision women as. This then causes the image of women to become that. Women are boxed inside that image and always viewed as such. The creators of media, usually male create the image of the women in that media so that they are made to be appreciated by the gaze of men. In European oil paintings John Berger, talks about the way women are painted, so as so that they have a spectator, also usually male and they exist for the pleasure of the gaze of that male spectator. Women in cinema according to Laura Mulvey in "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", fulfill two roles. One as an erotic object for the character within the screen story and as an erotic object for the audience. Women are displayed for the gaze and the enjoyment of men, and it this very gaze which then dictates the way that women are then ultimately displayed.

To counter this male gaze Bell Hooks talks about "oppositional gaze." The oppositional gaze allows for women to view themselves on screen, to view the images that are presented to be them, but never actually them, and critique that. Where women are displayed as objects of the male gaze, the oppositional gaze dares to gaze at the supposed image of themselves and critique it. It allows women to not ignore media, but to witness it, to see beyond the misinterpretations of themselves on screen, to not identify, and to be an intelligent viewer.

Media, whether it be European oil paintings, or the latest Hollywood blockbuster women are and almost mostly displayed as objects to enhance the male presence. Their own presence lacks substance. In advertisement everyday images of women are displayed in ways that exemplify the male envisionment of them and play to the male gaze. The same is for film, and television.

Before understanding these ways of viewing or being viewed, it never occured to the me that women, although present in the media that I consume daily are presented in such ways, and viewed accordingly. Their presence is flawed, almost meaningless if the male gaze dominates the creation of their image in the media.