Ive
always thought that men do not have to verbally or psychically make
you feel uncomfortable in order to actually make you feel
uncomfortable. Its called sexual harassment. The male gaze produces
most of the time an un inviting effect on women. Women live under a
pedestal. They have to walk a certain way , look , speak , appeal
etc. And that is because of society structure. However we are all to
blame for it because even knowing this. We have one way or another
accepted this structure. Women are brought up to live up to these
expectations.
The
male gaze has only magnified anger for women. There is pressure
giving to women even when they do not expected it. Just walking down
the street I there seems to be problem with what ever direction my
head is positioned. When my head is down a man says “put a smile on
ma” and when its up “ Hey god bless you, let me talk to you”.
I
have developed a negative reflex with a face expression of disgust
that appears in my face after I am being looked at. I remember a few
days ago a man in maybe his late 50s gazed me for what seems to be a
long time. He gazed from afar while I was approaching close to pass
his way . His gaze stood all the way to when I passed him.
This
is where the Oppositional Gaze is challenge by race. Bell Hooks
speaks about the struggles of identification in blacks on screen.
Bell brings an interesting point with indicating that the “gaze”
is actually a form of domination. Her example of being yelled at as a
child “ Look at me “ by parents was spot on. When some one is
asking you to look that them, usually the one thats is being asked
to look are the ones that are suborns. “critical, interrogating
black looks were mainly concerned with issues of race and racism, the
way racial domination of blacks and white over determined
representation”( Hooks,118) .
I
think education today can help us change or mold a bit this
situation. Now that we have all this history about whats going on we
can try to take a stand. We already know how the media want us to
make us feel. They have a huge part for which women can feel
insecure. With this knowledge I think that us as individuals have to
take a stand and say no to these advertisements that are constantly
telling us who we should look.
this
link also gives us proof that women have some faults in the way the
world is structured because I argue that if women have knowledge
about the true intentions of the media, than why participant in
modeling or posing a certain way. Everyone should take a stand for
this matter because equality is what we deserve.
Interesting link and views on modeling and posing. but do you really think that if women stop posing and modeling in certain ways that those issues would go away?
ReplyDeleteI found the link you posted very interesting and compelling. However, there are so many things we could potentially stop doing but I have to agree with Rachael, I don't really think this would make these issues go away. I think hooks' piece about feminist masculinity speaks directly to this.
ReplyDeleteHow do you propose we make this "stand"? Let us assume your utopia comes into actualization, where everyone manages to resist the influence of the media. For the sake of the argument, let us also assume there will be no negative impact on anything such as the global economy.
ReplyDeleteSocial constructs of masculinity and femininity turns to ruin and everything gets degenderized. Apparel becomes unisex and everyone no longer looks at youtube, movies, magazines, etc as guidelines for their appearance. However, is escaping the constrains of the media even possible? Being social animals, interpersonal interaction is inevitable, and we humans are a form of media as well. The individuals in your communities and groups will look upon each other for a guideline on how to appear and behave in order to become harmonious with the group instead of being ostracized. Breaking free from the grasp of the media requires the reconstruction of other social conventions that exceeds the boundaries of solely gender constructs.