Active vs. Passive (post2)

A woman who is confident, has a great shape, and sexual appeal is nothing but a great sight to witness. According to John Berger in Ways of Seeing, the male gaze is exactly that. As he describes, a woman does nothing but set perceptions on herself by the way she appears. “This exemplary treatment of herself by herself constitutes her presence” (Berger 46), If she appears promiscuous, she will be treated immorally. Berger continues to describe the male gaze as a “prize” that it is the male who is the judge and it is he who decides the beauty that gets to own the “prize”. A great example would be the painting “The Judgement of Paris” .

This disappointing judgment has become a pervasive form of vision in popular culture because of the media. The media has greatly exploited the physical appeal of a woman through advertising and television shows and have concluded that sex sells. A great example of this would be the shows and advertisements that are seen today.
Laura Mulvey enhances the woman’s beauty as being objectified. The text, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema introduces how women in cinema, are solely featured to play a role for the man. While the men are active and saving lives, women are passive and cater to the heroes.

On the other hand, Bell Hooks has acknowledged the roles of women in the media on her piece, The Oppositional Gaze. She defines how women (especially African American women) have created a “rebellious” gaze because of the way they are being portrayed. “Not only will I stare, I want my look to change reality.”(Hooks 116) Her emphasis on African American woman fighting subjectivity becomes much memorable due to the countless examples she provides. One is Passion of Remembrance, a film that featured a friendship between two African American women, Louise and Maggie, who cope with their struggle. However, these films were produced by white men who did not know what a black scenario was, at first hand, white men owned the media and it was they who directed non-realistic African American films.

These imbalanced structures became hard to understand as I had not bothered to think this ever occurred. Sex does sell for both men and women; therefore I did not think America’s media had a problem due to advertisements and television shows that feature promiscuous themes. The media is constantly displaying the sexy women or the sexy men and are still producing more ideas to feature these individuals. This understanding has greatly changed my views for I was a vulnerable consumer who never analyzed the manipulation that was put upon me. I now look at the media with a careful eye but I have come to realize that after all the manipulation and psychological influences, my identity is now my own. It is I who decides what makes me happy and progressive in life.

Look at her!

Media created the ideal women. It sculpts the image of women into perfection, something that is unrealistic. Something any average teenage girl wants to achieve. The media is what creates the sense of acceptance and rejection. Everyone wants to be accepted by the cultural norm even if that means fitting into the image made by the media. This generated opinions such as the male gaze where women are used as objects to satisfy the male.

In her article, Laura Mulvey coined the male gaze where she illustrates that women are put into film only to fulfill the erotic pleasure of the male audience. Mulvey states that women in cinema are the sole character to make male act a certain way but is not portrayed of any importance. The idea of subject object is where women’s value is only validated by a man. Not only that, women are put under pressure by the media where they are expected to look and act a certain way. They want to look like the girls in magazines and big screen TV.

The image made by the media is what the men want and that’s what the women want to be. Like Berger states, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” In the examples he displayed, he was successful in showing that the European nude paintings used to be a form of art. Now deprived of the art factor, it becomes merely images. The male gaze is a pervasive form of vision in popular culture because it is accepted by the social norm. Women want to look a certain way because they find pleasure in being looked at.

In contrast, the oppositional gaze, proposed by bell hooks, is how women perceive the female image portrayed in media. This idea defines that women can look at females on screen and critique what is being represented. Many times, the female image is blown out of proportion and is not what women are in reality. The oppositional gaze allows them to have the freedom to find the flaws within the media and be able to distinguish the difference between reality and media.

Looking from the authors perspectives, I was able to see where they were coming from. Throughout history, women has been seen as no more than an object of the men when indeed they are much more than that. Women enjoy being looked at because it gives them a sense of confidence and value. I pictured the women I know who are frequent readers of magazines. They look at the pretty women within magazines and envy their style, body shape, facial features and what they believe is beauty. They fail to realize that these females in the pictures have been edited professionally to look unrealistically beautiful and proportional. This also makes me think about the men who determines their ideal type through these professionally edited pictures. They live within a fantasy where they believe that women in magazines can be reality.

After learning these structures, I’ve come to realize how the public looks at women. Although this was proposed years before, it’s still true. Women tries to fit the media female image and what is socially accepted. As a female becoming a media maker, I feel a sense of responsibility to be different from what is expected of me and love myself for being different.

Deeper Than Just the Surface

As I was reading Berger's article, Ways of Looking, I felt the same shame that so defined a woman in her nakedness since the Original Sin. I too fell into the trap of that longing desire to be gazed upon by the opposite sex.

As I teenager in high school, I would walk through the hallways hoping to be noticed by him. I purposely starved myself, just to seem as waif-like as those nonchalant models with smokey eyes and breezy hair. I needed to feel that I was just as attractive and desired as them. His look would've given me that validity. His gaze would've meant that I existed in his world.

Berger states, "The prize is to be owned by the judge;" "the eye of the beholder." All I wanted was to have a boyfriend, my first boyfriend. I just wanted the "prize" of this someone to love me. Part of the problem with that, as I think so many young girls suffer from , was my own sense of self worth. I was so blindsided by the drive of wanting to be noticed that I didn't look at myself through my own eyes. I only saw what I was brainwashed to think would get his attention, not my own reflection but a fantasy.

Needless to say that as I get older and wiser, I experience the world from a different perspective now. As I am now my own spectator, I have that power to change perceptions. I understand can apply the phrase, "you can't judge a book by its cover," to what bell hooks states in The Oppositional Gaze, "I want my look to change reality." With that knowledge and power I look deeper than just the surface of whats being told to me is the ideal woman and as a spectator, "I change the system by being a player."

Like bell hooks, she didn't buy into how the filmmakers in Hollywood portrayed to black woman in society, that their roles were subordinate and "devalued." I choose to resist the sensationalism of women and "oppose the dominant order, to develop an oppositional gaze."

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

I Want my Look to Change Reality ( Post # 2)

There is a special power in gazing. Growing up as a teenager I was afraid to look straight into people’s eyes and I did not like it when someone was staring at me, trying to invade my privacy. Before going out I would carefully consider what clothes to wear and how to style my hair. As Berger suggests woman’s presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings and taste. I did not want people to notice my presence; I was trying to avoid the gaze.
Now, as a grownup I see the word differently. I am not disturbed when people look at me anymore, however I always look back at them. Sometimes a certain look might express more than words .I believe that once you are comfortable with yourself you are not intimidated when people look at you.
The male gaze has become a pervasive form of vision in popular culture. Women are shown in a way that appears pleasant for men. Berger writes: “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Some might argue that this is not always the case. I believe that there are many women who are not afraid to look back at men, women who do not find pleasure in the male’s gaze. These women make a statement; they do not let men to create their image. They are bold and independent and this is expressed through their attitude.
Berger writes that to be a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men. This is the main reason that the male gaze has become a pervasive form of vision in popular culture. But for how long this will continue? Women are getting more independent, they do not want men to create their image anymore. We are embracing the power of the gaze. When men look at us, we look back at them.
Bell Hooks writes: “…all attempts to repress our/black people’s right to gaze had produced in us an overwhelming longing to look, a rebellious desire, an oppositional gaze. In my opinion this refers to all women regardless their color. Over the years we-women gave birth to this “oppositional gaze”. We became tired of men looking at us, trying to construct our image. We become tired of looking at commercials that illustrate us as sexual image, as women who do not have anything to say. Time for change has come. And as Hooks states: “Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality.”

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.

Looking from the Outside

Alexa Perez
Post 2

What is the male gaze?

The male gaze as descried on the Way of seeing is the notion that women are objects, meaning they are there to fulfil the satisfactions of the ideal fantasy for a man. The spectator as Berger states. The women's purpose is to be looked by the man. She has no meaning what's important is the figment that is envision by her presence. Berger theories are express through nude and sexual paintings of women images.

Women are constantly being examine in their every move and self expression. "One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between man and women but also the relation of women themselves." Women are placed under a microscope.

Another idea reflected from the male gaze is that beauty is what is worthy. This is an ongoing issue today because beauty is what sells. The most beautiful women are the ones' that are desired.

The media places a tremendous amount of pressure toward women in deciding what is consider beautiful. Women that are consider beautiful are the ones that are accepted. The outcome behind this view makes women compete with one another. This creates demons and self infliction among many women today. One issue that women deal with is her weight, if a women is petite, slim then that is sexy and beautiful!

The oppositional gaze described by Bell Hooks has to do with "the power of looking". Bell refers to black women as the spectator. She uses examples in her piece relating back to slavery when they were not permitted to look, " all attempts to repress our/black peoples' right to gaze had produced in us an overwhelming longing to look, a rebellious desire, an oppositional gaze."

Bell Hooks expresses how black women in films, "cinemas were objects of the gaze." But they were not representing themselves, they were portraying white women. Which meant that their experiences were consider non existent and unacceptable. The media today has made drastic changes within the last decades, but yet some criticisms still persist today.