Humans classify and objectifies the
different things they see in order to differentiate the dissimilarities between
them. And a gaze is a signal of action
of one's desires upon the targeted object; the male gaze is an engendered form
of the gaze that views from a phallocentric perspective that objectives women
as a "sight" (Berger) pertaining to the "primal scene"
(Mulvey). I believe not only the male
gaze has become pervasive in popular culture, but any intent look at women from
a man as well, due to how the mass media has portrayed the male perspective
when viewing women.
In order to understand the reason
behind the shared circumstance between a general gaze and the male gaze in
popular culture, it is necessary to comprehend the constituent elements that
defines a gaze. A gaze is intrusive
because of its power of conveying a desire is placed upon the stared object,
but the desire itself is not what makes the surveyed anxious, it is the
intention behind the desire. Humans fear
uncertainties and the unknowns, and when the intention of the stare is
obscured, the one being inspected becomes indeterminate of the proper response
to follow. The severity of intrusiveness
of a gaze is determined by the "promise of power" that the gazer
"embodies", hence the difference between the degree of offensiveness
when gazed by a child and an adult (Berger). The credibility of a child fulfilling the
intention behind the gaze is low compared to an adult.
The male gaze has become pervasive in
popular culture because it has become the prevalent perspective for viewers in
the mass media originated from a patriarchal society. In order for men to classify and accept women
in a patriarchal society, they must "confront" the differences in the
female sex or establish a "fetish" for them; in which the popular
culture has proceeded with the latter (Mulvey).
This enables agencies to take advantage and further their own agendas
through the usage of the media by appealing to the fetish with the male
gaze. Despite the differences between an
indiscriminate gaze and the male gaze, the effect on women has become the same when
the male gaze became cognizant in the mass media. With the male gaze becoming the normalcy in
movies, games, magazines, etc, it has also become the base case for men's gaze
on women. With the intention of the gaze
unclear, women subconsciously interpret the intention behind the stare the same
as of the male gaze because of the amount of exposure they are surrounded with
it.
The oppositional gaze is another form
of a gaze but with the intention made clear: "resistance, challenges to
authority" (Hooks). The
oppositional gaze was developed due to "racial negation" and
"cinema negation" of African American women in the media
(Hooks). Oppressed by white supremacy,
African Americans dared not to stare back at white people for they were
punished for showing signs of defiance towards the ruling class. However, with the access to cinemas, African
Americans had the privilege of staring at white people without the fear of
penalty. Although changes began to occur
in racial power structures, the absence of representation and connectivity of
black women in the media stirred public awareness. Awareness that eventually led to the
oppositional gaze of black women by viewing the media, but refusing to
"identify" with the women being portrayed with neither a victimized
or perpetrator's perspective. Doing so
undermines the power constructs of the media has over black women since the
media's sphere of influence only affects those that identify with whatever the
media illustrates.
With new methods of exhibiting power
for women such as the oppositional gaze arise, the power distribution between
genders changes. The property of the
male gaze is no longer engendered, which females also have the privilege of
becoming the "active" instead of remaining the "passive"
(Mulvey). Men are also objectified as an
object of sight in today's society and these growth of social constructs also
expands the boundaries in which the mass media can take advantage and exercise
their influence. It is imperative to
view the media created by agencies critically lest we become subservient to
manipulations that only conforms to their designs.
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