The first time I had heard of the male gaze was in my A-Level Media Studies class, where we analysed footage of tv shows, films and other visual media. Since then i’ve been very much so familiar with the concept and could recognise it in almost every type of media I consumed: nearly all the films, music videos, manga, even music.
The choice of objectification was always a woman, always a woman on a pedestal. J. Berger’s famous phrase: men act, women appear, was always applicable. And I realised it was there but never took a huge effort to be angry about it or question why it did this?
The Oppositional Gaze (Hooks, 1992) was interesting to read because it allows a new way of thinking to occur while I (still) consume similar media. Hooks talks about the black female spectator/moviegoer having to let go of being critical to enjoy watching films.
The experience of the cinema, being in the dark to forget their appearance and instead take on that of the white woman’s position. Cinema makes us envy whiteness, that our lives will never be as good as that of the white man’s.
This does cross into race, but the two do often go very much hand in hand, and are so linked that they are often the cause of the other.
feminist visions cts/year2/ivm 