Post 2. The Gaze.

The male gaze is defined as the way a masculine figure sees and recognizes a female. The meaning a female has throw his eyes and in reference to what his culture, habits, and of course, media, has made him to think about women.

"There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure on being looked at" (Mulvey, 835). This quote really called my attention because it is true that the male gaze has been implanted mostly by media. Males observe how women are "disrespected" or treated with inferiority when giving them roles for a show or movie for instance. A woman usually portrays a fragile and manipulative character, while her story is not centered in anything in concrete but a love story, which centers it in a man's life. It is true that women have been seen as weak human beings but, it is important to know that most women instead of fighting for their rights and equality, accept things the way they are. This makes it more complicated for men to see that equality between male and woman.

Some of the examples I would like to highlight related to the male gaze are the following:

In this image I have observed how the woman is portrayed, once again, as an object for the man. She wants to show the man that by using that lipstick she has the power to control him, but on the other side, the actual power is given by the red passion color lipstick and the way she would look while wearing it. Which, from my point of view, takes the man to see the woman as an attractive object and not as a simple natural woman who wouldn't need lipstick to call a man's attention. 

Once again, by observing this example, the female character is portrayed as an object. Although in this case, the message is reinforced by text, which is clearly comparing the taste and size of the hamburger with sexuality. 

On the other hand, when talking about the oppositional gaze, as explained by Hooks, is developed when treating with our children and controlling their gaze by telling them not to look at something but at the same time to look at us to make sure they are following our "rules". " The child who has learned so well to look the other way when necessary. Yet, when punished, the child is told by parents, 'look at me when I talk to you' (Hooks, 115). As Hooks explains, by doing so, we create a feeling on the child where he would be afraid to look straigh at his/her parent, but at the same time he/she would feel amaze by his/her gaze. This is something that has a lot of power while growing up. And it is not the only way the opposite gaze is used for. As explained in The Opposite Gaze, by Hooks, this method was also used by white Americans many years ago to have power over the black slaves. As shown in the book, I found very shocking the fact that even in the actuality, many dark skin people learn how to deal with light skin people by consuming media. "Unless you went to work in the white world, across the tracks, you learned to look at white people by staring to them on the screen" (Hooks, 117).

In conclusion, given the fact that I am not an extremely media consumer, instead of changing the point of view I see media, I have understood why and how this differences were developed. Since I am originally from another country and I have only lived here for about four years, I have never had the chance to explore indeed the reasons why racism is a very common theme in the United States, as well as the woman’s figure seen by the eye of a man. Although, since media is everywhere, I remember watching advertisements back in my country, mostly made in America I believe, and I have to recognize that in most of them women were portrayed as an object to men and were also represented by a really thin, blond and with blue eyes woman, as if that prototype was what defined perfection. One of the advertisements that I could recall right now, where women were naturally portrayed with the objective of showing other women the reality and beauty, was the one done by DOVE.

On the other hand, I also recall advertisements where women were portrayed again as an object to men. One of them would be the one created by Dolce and Gabbana, where a woman is surrounded by multiple men as if they had the power over her for consuming the brand. Something I consider myself insulting when representing the women's perception.