Being that there are so many types of media out
there, and it is constantly being pushed down our throats it makes sense to say
that it has some type of effect on everyone. The effect varies from individual
to individual but it none the less results in some type of shaping of our
thinking or on what we do or how we act towards ourselves and each other. How?
Well take a second and think about how many times in a day you are exposed to
some type of media. Be it watching a movie or TV, reading something online or
in a magazine/newspaper, (yes people still read those), walking down the street
or riding the subway, seeing an advertisement, checking your Facebook or going
on YouTube and seeing ads on the side bar or before a video, there are a number
of different ways it can happen, and that’s just one day. How much media have
we been exposed to in our whole lives and how has it shaped ours and society’s
views on, well everything? How has it shaped the way you think of yourself and
others, and vice versa? Think about how of what we see we absorb, (consciously
or unconsciously). Many of things we are exposed to, we soak up like
sponges—most times without even wanting to—but what can we do its literally
everywhere there is no escaping it!
Now with this being said if most of the media we
are exposed to is created through the looking glass of a man, how is that
shaping how they view and treat us as women? Well like I mentioned before, they
hold us women to an impossible standard, one that we could never truly reach.
If all the images that they see are of super skinny women, or women made up in
Photoshop, always an accessory to a man or for a man regardless of what is
being advertised or what the plot of the movie is, this is a problem. They as
men begin to see us not as their equals, not even really as human beings, but
as people who are inferior to them, mere objects in a way only there for their
pleasure. Even in advertisements that are supposedly geared for women, the
focus of it becomes to attract a man, it is centered towards their gaze
regardless of what is being advertised. Women in this sense are used as props
to sell whichever product is being advertised.
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In
this image, what is being advertised is speaker,however it is the woman
that
grabs the attention. This advertisement is geared towards
Men
because although she is covered, she is still naked. Looking into the camera,
For
the pleasure of the man taking the photo, and the men that will view the ad.
This attracts
Them
to buy what is being sold.
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The same thing can also be seen
in essentially most of the movies that we see today. Most of the films that we
see today are centered around a man even if there are female characters in the
movie, they are never the real focus. In her book “Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema,” Laura Mulvey speaks to the idea that even when a woman is in a movie,
she is only there for the pleasure of a man.
“Traditionally, the women displayed has functioned
on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story and
as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium…” (Mulvey 838)
When a female enters the screen, it is intended for
her to be there for the viewing pleasure of a male audience and she usually doesn’t
contribute anything significant to the movie’s plot. When a woman enters on
screen, especially for the first time in a movie, the shots tend to linger on
her body, since it is created centered around men and pleasing them. For
example in this scene from a very popular movie Transformers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ch0Hu917CQ
As she walks down the road the camera pans out and we see her in very short
tight shorts, and short top that accentuates her small waist and her breasts.
The car breaks down and her character knows how to work with cars, but instead
of focusing on the skill set the character is more interested in her
attractiveness. Although the characters seem to be talking about the car, conversation
alludes of sex, in this instance she once again begins to be an object of
sexual desire for the audience as well as the protagonist. The camera is
placing her body in main focus and lingers on it for a while, geared towards
the male audience. This is just one scene from one movie but regardless of what
the plot of the movie is, there are several other scenes like this one out
there. In all of these instances the women are meant to be an object of sexual
desire and nothing else.
But it doesn’t just shape the men view us, the male
gaze shapes how we women view other women and ourselves as well. Growing
up in a media-centric world has had quite an effect on this generation since we
are the ones that have been the most exposed to it so far. If the media is
telling men that women have to look and act a certain way, we begin to feel the
pressure to look and act that way for many different reasons. A lot of young
girls begin to suffer from things like eating disorders because the media tells
that them being a certain size is equal to being beautiful. They go out and buy
all the latest products and trends to try and fit in with everyone else. We
fear that if we do not conform to what the media tells us we should look like
that we will never attract someone, we will fail in life and basically be
unhappy when quite the opposite is true.
Instead of focusing so much of our time trying to
look a certain way, there are so many other productive things we could be doing
with our time. I think about all the time I spend worrying about my weight,
what my hair should look like, my makeup, my clothes all these things but if I
just let go of all that worrying about trying to look a certain way, I would
stress out way less than I do now.
Now that we know that there is such a problem, what
can we do to make a change? The answer comes in the form of something called
the female gaze, and term that refers to the idea that now that we women have
been made aware of this problem, we gaze rather than watch when viewing any
type of media. There is a significant difference between just watching something
and gazing at it, when we gaze at a movie we become more critical of what we
are watching, and that it turn inspires us to go out there at do something. For
me the gaze had me me all the more determined to succeed and find a way to make
a change within myself, a change on how I view myself and how I let others
views of me not effect me as much as it used to. If we as women want the world
to start seeing us as equals and not just objects, then we must go out there
and create the types of media that we want to see. We have to go out there and
demonstrate that we are not going to buy into the medias superficial definitions
of what beauty is, because if we keep trying to strive to be that “perfect”
woman instead, the problem will continue.
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