The male gaze is defined as the lens through which mostly white, heterosexual men are viewing the world. Throughout most of media history, these men have seen women as attractive, seductive and at times conniving. Film noir films are a prime example of this, such as Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce. Today, women are more sexualized than ever in films.
In the first two live action Transformers movies, actress Megan Fox was seen mostly as "eye candy."
The "oppositional gaze" coined by Bell Hooks, was described by her as, "This gaze is one which cultivates a power to look, enabling black female spectators to document what they see and construct their own dialogue with their own voice. By representing black women in film, not as a reaction to white-dominated narratives, but simply as a recognition of critical black female spectatorship, it creates a space for 'new transgressive possibilities for the formulation of identity."
This means that a black woman more relate to what she sees rather than have to see it through a white person's perspective of the world. There have been groundbreaking women who have attempted to break out the male dominated narrative in shows such as, Murphy Brown and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. They presented women as the leads with problems that didn't always have to do with men. I feel there needs to be more shows like this done in the present day as the media is still male dominated, more specifically white male dominated.
Wolf, Naomi. The beauty myth: how images of female beauty are used against women. New York, W. Morrow, 2002.
Hooks, Bell. Black looks: race and representation. Boston, South End Press, 1992.
I love this essay! I think it's very interesting that you brought in the cartoons as an example of the male gaze because it happened very often and now I'm reevaluating everything I have ever seen. I also like the Transformers example I remember reading a bunch of reviews when they first came out on Megan Fox's character and the criticism that the movie received because of it.
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting how you brought up the femme fatale trope that dominated the film noir era. I also agree that Megan Fox was simply used as a tool to draw in male viewers. It was awful what happened to her in regards to the Transformers series and that when she tried to call Michael Bay out on being difficult to work with she received major backlash and was called ungrateful for the opportunity to work with him and compared to a porn star as a result.
ReplyDeleteMegan Fox was at one point very vocal about how uncomfortable she was being sexualized in the Transformers movie, and especially about how the director Michael Bay blatantly and openly used her as a sexual prop. She was greatly ignored and those who commented on it mostly vilified her for being ungrateful. It's sad.
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