On ways of seeing/viewing

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The gaze. The way we view the world. The power to tell stories and show images from our own perspective. It’s the idea that those whose gaze holds the most power, can shape the dominant and leading reality of the day, particularly through mass media. While today those of women and people of color now have some of their voices heard, they still are far off from holding the actual microphone. To this day they are still fighting against the dominant white power structure in order to be allowed the space to tell their stories.

"Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality." (Hooks 116).

The “oppositional gaze” specifically deals with combating the oppression of the black gaze and white supremacy. As Bell Hooks tells it, “…mass media was a system of knowledge and power reproducing and maintaining white supremacy” (Hooks 117). Black people were rarely given any space in media and when they did appear, it was in stereotypical and dehumanizing ways. Animalistic and violent when used as scapegoats, unintelligent and simple when mocked and degraded, or as desexualized black women.

  

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  For centuries it has been the gaze of white straight men that rose above the rest, the one voice that held all control. It is, after all, the inevitable reality of a patriarchal society. As a result, women have had their place in films, television, and other media outlets designed in a way that caters to the male gaze. 

     A popular and seemingly never ending portrayal of women in media is that of the sexualized eye candy. She is there simply to be objectified, often times the camera seemingly encouraging the viewer to do so. As Laura Mulvey points out, "By means of identification with him, through participating in his power, the spectator can directly possess her too." (Mulvey 840). She is merely a prop for the male hero, her importance only defined by her looks. Not once does she take the power of the narrative away from the men, not once does she even share it with him. Her very existence is only in relation to him. As John Berger reiterates in Ways of Seeing, "...the ideal spectactor is always assumed to be male" and as such "the image of the woman is designed to flatter him." (64). Her sexuality is portrayed as a way to highlight his desirability as a man. The woman never gets to be her own person apart from the male. She is always just an extension of him in her portrayal. 

     Media is a powerful influential figure in our society. Whether we're aware of it or not, it shapes the way we view ourselves and the way we view others. Thus is it important to the patriarchy to portray women and people of color in subservient roles. To never make their perspective equal to or greater than that of the white straight man. That is if and when their perspective is ever shared at all.

Works Cited

     Bell Hooks. In Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992: 115-131.

     Berger, John. Chapters 2,3. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972.

     Mulvey, Laura. 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory 

Readings. NY: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-844.