Envisioning Gender, While Searching for Balance

Group 1: Kelly, Audrey and Daniel

Presentation Summary

 

 

 

 

In her essay, Understanding Patriarchy, bell hooks defines patriarchy as a “political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.” (p. 18) To that end, it is patriarchy which has shaped the systems, structures and institutions that govern and regulate our society and the mass media, which is not free from its influence, is a critical force in the production and perpetuation of an oppressive system that impacts the lives of all persons. Media commands the gaze of all persons and through this, a unique but often contradictory relationship exist between the message, viewer and perception.  “We have to admit that we have loved the media as much as we have hated them – and often at exactly the same time…along with our parents, the mass media raised us, socialized us, entertained us, confronted us, deceived us, disciplined us, told us what we could do and what we couldn’t.” (Douglas, 1994).

 

In our presentation, Envisioning Gender, While Searching for Balance, we examine how patriarchy shapes the media, critiquing the objectification of both women and men and the compartmentalization that's imposed on human experiences, particularly those of women. “The mass media often trivialize our lives and our achievements, narrowing the litmus test of women’s worth.” (Douglas, p. 12)  We incorporated photographs of poses that speak to the “male gaze”, as well commercials that highlight a problematic depiction of female sexual empowerment. “Females have long been divided into virgins and whores, of course. What is new is that girls are now suppose to embody both within themselves.” (Kilbourne p. 145) In addition, the stigmatization of male emotional expression is also explored as we consider hooks’ position on the impact that patriarchy has on male bodies as well. “Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit our nation, demanding that they become and remain emotional cripple.”(p. 17,24). Through our analysis, we encouraged the audience the explore ways in which we as a society can challenge patriarchy through the media and envision what this may look like. To further the discussion, we employed the question, is there such a thing as balance within the media and then looked to Oprah Winfrey as a possibility of what balance may look like.

Ms. Winfrey is a trailblazer and continues to be a pivotal contributor to mass media. Her impact, including but not limited to her as a brand, reach, ratings, viewership, social position and power where all taken into consideration when questioning the idea of balance in the media; but more importantly her relationship to patriarchy within the media. Is Oprah immune from the oppressive and discriminative nature of a patriarchal framework? Does she too have to “play the game” in order to maintain her position and power? Does Oprah herself contribute to the production and reproduction of patriarchy by subscribing to racial, class and gender-based stereotypes and controlling images?

 

While it is not our intent to declare who or what constitutes balance, it is our duty to question its existence in our lives and critique how it manifests within day to day interactions. What we hope is clear from our presentation is that media is an essential component in the human experience, as it has the ability to impact one’s identity. To that end, we as individuals must be willing to employ agency and autonomy in our lives, with the hopes that this can serves as the foundation to attaining balance within the media. As a conduit that serves a vast population, it is critical that media offers accurate and diverse depictions of social members and it is held accountable for the messages which are distributed. In this quest of envisioning gender through a more balance perspective, scrutinizing media for its negative social influence is paramount; however in current times particularly, it is clear that media is also the motivating force beyond social movement and reform. Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street are only examples of where media can take global society and this too must be acknowledged. Ultimately, the relationship between identity and media is a conflicting but necessary one. Questioning, opposition and rebellion, especially when done through media, often affords “private” matters the opportunity to become pubic problems; in addition to contributing significantly to identity construction, personal character and integrity. This love/hate relationship that sustains itself through our social interactions will continue to play out, the question is going be, what will the relationship look like?

 

 

 

Check Out These Commercials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtlhTOijPgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeItrekUmhQ

 

Douglas, Susan. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York:  Three Rivers Press, 1994. Print 

hook, bell. "Understanding Patriarchy", The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love. New York: Atiria, 2004. Print

 

Kilborne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, the More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size", Can't Buy Me Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think & Feel. New York: Touchstone, 1999. 128-54. Print

 

“The Official Liquid Plumbr – Double Impact”. “Commercial”.  YouTube. 19 Sept 2013.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtlhTOijPgg>

 

“Snickers – Road Trip featuring Aretha Franklin and Liza Minelli”. “Commercial”. YouTube. 19 Sept 2013.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeItrekUmhQ>

 

 

 

 





Women and Media FA2013 Project # 3

       This short Video consist of an interview I conducted of a male friend of mine. I used some of John Berger's images as a base for my observation of  "The Gaze" that we have come to understand as demeaning and degrading. I chose these dated images as a non biased observation. Since our group is focusing on women and advertisement. I decided to see his reactions of these images without any type of captions or persuasive marketing ploy. It is interesting to see what he truly thinks of the images. I then, upon his initial response created mock Print Ads based on some of his reactions to these images, and my own formulation of what can be conveyed through  my own marketing ploy and visual manipulation. 
      
       
      

Gazes From All Eyes

The “male gaze” is the look, the opinion, and the contrived freedom to objectify woman as sexual objects in society.  Even with much improvement in female equality, we still live in a male dominated society.  Like John Berger’s essay “Ways of Seeing” states, “to be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men” (46).  In this kept world, woman are always aware of the “male gaze”, or being watched, “from earliest childrood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually” (46).

Let me tell you, I was surprised when no girls in the class put up their hand admitting to enjoying the occasional cat-call on the street.  I myself didn’t put up my hand because no one else did.  I was shy to stand-alone.  Maybe others felt the same way as me?  I know I have friends who agree – we’ve talked about it. But I’ll admit it here; it sometimes makes me feel good to be whistled at on the street.  Like when I specifically got dressed up and a group of construction workers holler at me, it gives me an extra bit of sass in my strut.  Or when I’m feeling down and sneaking to the store to buy 10 chocolate bars, in my sweat pants and pajama shirt, thinking that no one could ever find me attractive, and across the road some guy yells “hey beautiful”, I feel a little less repulsive.  In my mind it’s kind of part of the “charm” of being in a big pedestrian city; it’s more charming than a guy vomiting into a trash can on the corner of 59^th St. and Lex at 3pm, or a woman clipping her toe nails on the 6 train.  I doesn’t bother me that much because I don’t feel threatened by a guy honking his horn as he drives down the street, as I would by a man actually conversing with me in a more secluded setting like a book store or a bar.  I get bothered by unsolicited pick up attempts more than any cat-call or gaze.

 From the Bell Hooks article, “Understanding Patriarchy”, I understand that I am spreading patriarchy by having this view, but I also learned where I got it from – my mother, “most of us learned patriarchal attitudes in our family of origin, and they were usually taught to us by our mothers” (23).  My parents had followed gender norms, like Hooks’ parents, “had been taught patriarchal thinking through religion” (19), my dad was the breadwinner, my mom the childcare giver, cook, cleaner.  My mom was clearly the one in charge of the family, but you needed to pass your idea by her, and then work together to make my dad feel like he was the one okaying it.  Once mom signed off, you knew it was fine.  My brothers and I, “had to follow a predetermined gendered script” (19).  They had lots of “boy” toys and were told to be big and bold and dominant, I was told to stay inside with my mother and be a lady.  I like being a “lady” though.  I was never really interested in crossing the gender boundary to begin with, and saw no problem wanting to be pretty.  It may be sexist thinking, but I really like it when men sees me as pretty.  It may mean I’m falling victim to this thinking and I’m accomplishing that predetermined gendered script, but mostly it just makes me feel good.

I think the worse gaze is not from men on the street, but from girls in print.  Woman continue to learn that they are on display by almost every form of media they ever see.   The interesting part to me is the use of girls in this “male gaze” view in typically female only outlets like Seventeen, or Cosmo Girl.  Girls gaze at other girls because they need to see their competition, .

No matter how a male gaze makes me feel, the gaze from a skinny model in a magazine will make me feel like shit.

Lets talks about sex.

It’s funny to think that we live in a society that boast it’s progressive views, yet people can still be reluctant to talk about sex. The best part however the general consensus is that sex sells.  If sex does in fact sell, why is it still an awkward topic to talk about? Well the truth is human’s pervasive nature has been consistently evident for centuries, and the key to “selling sex” is the “male gaze”

First lets start by describing what a “gaze” is: it’s a term used to describe the concept used to analyze imagery presented to us. Going further with this definition the “male gaze” the scope males uses to view and often subjectively women. Berger teases this notion by stating “[m]en survey women before treating them.” (Berger, 46) Berger goes on to describe the relationship between spectator and object by simply stating, “men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at… The surveyor of women in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and particularly an object of vision: a sight.” (Berger, 47) While Berger used traditional European oil paintings; modern photographs and advertising can still display lingering evidence of the “male gaze”

The image above displays a women in partial nudity. Furthermore the model's expression is reminiscent on the painting and photograph Berger used and described as "the expression of a woman responding with calculated charm to the man whom she imagines looking at her... She is offering up her femininity as the surveyed." (Berger. pg 55) This tactic is often used to sell products to the consumers, more often is fragrance adverts. As Berger suggested it is often assumed that the spectators are usually males. 

However in The Oppositional Gaze Bell Hooks gets more specific when differentiate types of "gazes" Hook criticizes the lack of representation of black people in Hollywood cinema and overall presence in media. Even more so hook criticizes the lack of criticism of black people in media. Hook summarized the experience of fully enjoying mainstream Hollywood movies by stating "[e]very black woman i spoke with who was.is an ardent moviegoer, a lover of the Hollywood film, testified that to experience fully the please of that cinema they had to close down critique, analysis; they had to forget racism. And mostly they did not think about sexism." (Hook, pg 120) This state if only one of many statements Hook makes that can be used to the experience of the oppositional gaze. Hook explains this by stating that "[s]ubordinates in relations of power learn to experientially that there is a critical gaze, one that 'looks' to document, one that is oppositional."(Hook, pg 116)

As a consumer I'm not immune to advertising, just as I'm not immune to any gaze really. As a gay male I have been followed in the train and have almost fallen victim to many incidents where people would only generally consider for females. That being said, while I'm not immune, I do feel that I am not effected the same way many others by these "gazes" I do however do find myself liking ads that can be considered as counter parts of the "male gaze" such as:

.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yelvxwTRUY

Who am I next?

Who am I?  A question I’ve been struggling with lately.  As my long overdue graduation approaches in a few short months, I feel the pressure to decide who I am going to be in the next stage of life.  I almost avoid family phone calls because inevitably I will be asked, “What are you going to do after graduation?”  How am I supposed to answer such a question?  I feel like in this generation, with this economy, it’s an impossible question to predict until it actually happens.

For the past few years I’ve known who I was – a free spirited wanderer/a college student/ a young woman struggling to make it on her own/ a professional Craigslister/ a dancer/ a traveler/ a millennial trying to “find herself”.  I’m afraid it’s not cute anymore.  You see, I’m the baby of four children and the only girl.  I didn’t choose to be a princess, but I won’t lie, I know how to work my situation.  Two of my brothers are much older, 15 and 13 years, and have been successful since I was in diapers.  My other brother who is just two-and-a-half years older, the middle, sometimes forgotten child, took a very practical approach to life – undergrad, masters, marriage, house, governmental job.  This left me to be the independent, creative, girly, vagabond I am.

As a kid, probably in an attempt to separate myself from a boy centered household, or unknowingly pushed by my mother finally having a little girl to rear, I was extremely, typically girly; I studied ballet intensively, was a competitive figure skater, and liked dolls, playing dress up, and everything pink.  My Olympic figure skating ambition (which was my entire youth), ended in a car accident at 14.  This is when I lost direction, but gained a new world of possibilities.

My family immigrated from Canada while I was away at boarding school, so when I graduated high school, I felt like I had no real “home” to go to and the freedom to roam a new country.  I au paired in Connecticut, danced at Disneyland in California, moved to New York to go to Hunter, left New York because I was partying too hard in the Lower East Side, moved to Las Vegas to go to school (my parents live there), taught tap dance to inner city kids, moved back to New York to finish at Hunter, working in restaurants to survive, thus leaving me at 26 and only about to graduate.  What am I going to do now? … The question everyone wants an answer to…

When I first told my family I was studying Media, I would say I wanted write a sitcom.  I still do. I have he pilot and first few episodes written. I take inspiration from the irony of life’s timing – reoccurring numbers, the collective conscious, friend’s overlapping paths, ect.  I like art that is over-the-top in a subtle way—the campy mundane.  I am aware of the cruel world of “the industry” and can only hope to be lucky enough to get my script into the right hands.  Until then, I’m afraid that who I am going to be next, is a slightly older, young woman working some shitty entry level job in Los Angeles, hopefully in television development with room to grow, trying to make it like everyone else.  At least it will be sunny!

The Gaze and Portrayal

Culture is based on the many things that run society, in today's world sex sells it is the leading theme in many companies and glamorized to appeal to the audience. the "male gaze" in many forms is what drives the industry, however what is the "male gaze"? The "male gaze" is the manner in which the men perceive women in a male dominated society, they are entitled to look upon women with judgment and ownership.
"Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a women appears to a man can determine how she will be treated. To acquire some control over this process, women must contain it and internalize it." (Berger, 46) It is hard to argue with the reading when we are constantly surrounded by glamorization of women selling products. Simply put, women are commercialized and put as the face of products to gain popularity. Like many of the of paintings that were made by men depicting women much of the commercialism comes from a patriarchal based society. Women are "sights" to be seen, in the Berger reading, and they continue to be sights.

In the Bell Hooks reading we see that not all gazes are alike; the "male gaze" is highly dominated by the white race as oppose to the black "male gaze". Historically, the African American men have suffered by the hands of their white masters and the white authority. Take for example, Emmette Till, beaten, castrated and burnt, a punishment that was very common for African Americans, Till was lynched for supposedly gazing upon a white woman and whistling at her. "Given the real life public circumstances wherein black men where murdered/lynched for looking at white womanhood, where the black male gaze was always subject to control and/or punishment by the powerful white Other, the private realm of television screens or dark theaters could unleash the repressed gaze, interpreting and punishing." (Hooks, 118) The "male gaze" stems from the white male dominance that has historically haunted the black race.

The image of the women has been perverted and twisted by the media to demonstrate the female body to advertise many products, products that sometimes have nothing to do with the female body. The women physique is just a pleasurable sight to be looked at and observed. Women are seen as passive, gentle and nurturing therefore the mere sight of the female is said to be soothing. Likewise, in many advertisements females are usually portrayed as being passive and positioned in a non-active manner, as oppose to males who are, most of the time, portrayed in an active and/or aggressive manner.
Women are suppose to keep a virginal portrayal, yet also be able to demonstrate "sexiness", they are supposed to be powerful yet also demonstrate submissiveness with their partner. "The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. in their tradition exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed , with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness." (Mulvey, 837)

Yet I still enjoy a mostly naked David Beckham.

The male gaze is a form of typical and daily domination of women in our culture. Actually, not just our culture but a world wide form of domination over the female gender. In a way, it's the one thing women don't speak out about. Perhaps the thought of telling someone they aren't allowed to look at something that seems silly to the victim. Except it's not. It's not wrong that women feel uncomfortable when men gaze at them in a judging manner. The overly sexualized look is generally always undesired.

With the encouragement of the media, these gazes are almost impossible to fight. Think about all the ads with women behaving sexually to sell menial products. Just think of Sophia Vergara selling Pepsi and Burger King. In this Pepsi ad she her character revels in the sexual attention in order to achieve the satisfaction of drinking a can of soda, which is absurd. This wouldn't be expected of a man. Yet this fashion is accepted as normal by both men and women. 

From the readings you can see the trend is nothing new, look at the painting from the 1400's (bottom right) on page 57 of John Berger's reading then compare to the more modern photo (bottom right) from what I'm guessing is the 1950's and you can see the male gaze in both from both. The men within these images are blatantly gazing at the woman's body. They are not looking at her face, but specifically are staring at her body.

The male gazes a woman faces are often very different from the oppositional gaze described by Bell Hooks. Bell Hooks explains the oppositional gaze began as way to rebel against oppression. She gives the examples of slave owners forbidding slaves to look at them so that the desire to do the opposite grew strong and the ability to look became a precious commodity. This precious skill became a way to push back, a form of opposition. 

I understand the right to look at something is precious, even though it has never been limited to me though I do not agree with the man's perceived right to stare at women in such blatant and intruding ways. Media and the ads produced must take some of the blame for this intruding effect women face daily. It may not be a form of vocal harassment but it is enough to be wrong and unfair. Ads like this one by Armani should never be produced. In my opinion Armani is the worst offender as far as EXTREMELY sexual ads go. However, I too, have been trained to enjoy David Beckham, Fernando Torres, and Cristiano Ronaldo's mostly naked bodies. 

If those don't constitute as an intruding male gazes, then I'm not sure could.