The Gaze vs Stimulation

     The first thing, that is brought to mind when someone thinks about the “Gaze” is the way something is looked upon or how it can be perceived. But the way media display the gaze it seems to be for the purpose of sexual arousal (may it be male or female), but the ultimate purpose is to stimulate through visual images. As girls they are taught how to speak, sit, walk and look but never taught to affirm who and what is “Women.” They allowed what is supposed to be beautiful to be seen as something evil, destructive and obsolete. Sometimes women themselves get lost in this gaze and adore or accept the negative attention that they receive.

     In “Understanding Patriarchy,” I realized from early on that my parents were teaching me how to fall in line with the other nice sweet girls, when all I wanted to do was run with my brothers and their friends and play baseball and play hide and seek in abandon buildings. I’ve received many of battle scars trying not to fit into what is considered the “Norm” of womanhood. I think that’s why I love bell hooks so much; her writing is something I can relate to in so many different aspects in my personal life. Children with religious parents tend to use biblical terminology to control and subdue the girls in the household, by making reference to a time that wouldn’t work in the twentieth century.

     Biblically girls and/or women are to look to the “Strong” man that God created to rule over all things throughout the earth, women roles were to obey the men. Averting women power, into powerless and only victims and men are powerful and oppressive. hooks, gave the definition of Patriarchy, “a social organization marked by supremacy of the father in the clan or family in both domestic and religious functions…. Patriarchy is characterized by male domination and power” (23), this quote leaves me questioning single parent household where the father is deceased. Yes, I know then it falls to the Matriarch, but if we go with the definition that is given and remove the sex couldn’t women fall under that same category?

     Whereas, in “The Oppositional Gaze,” it speaks to women of color, when they look at media, advertisement and/or entertainment they don’t find a fair representation of themselves. When they look at media do they see themselves or closeness to the shade? Today, we are finding more and more women of color taking leading roles in entertainment. The view of the present is no longer skewed by the images of the past. With mass media changing course and the feminist movement forcing mass media to look above a women shoulders to actually see the quality of their performance. We are moving away from the gaze of degradation towards women (white or colored).

     hooks states, “we are afraid to talk about ourselves as spectators because we have been so absurd by “the gaze” (125), we have been beaten and bruised in the past that seeing our self as desirable by anyone was obsolete to us, even by our own kind. The media displays the images in commercials and clips from shows that would get the viewer going; wanting more of whatever it is that stimulates and brings arousal to the viewer. Example, kids see a type of cereal or toy on the television the way it’s displayed is to have the child nag their parents until they get whatever it is they want from what stimulated their view.

     Whereas, the male gaze is a combination of the readings, well it is the readings actually. Everything that’s put out in mass media is from a masculine perceptive. The way the position of every view, angle and shot signify an underline message, either to entice or to strip the image from itself. I can’t remember one image that depicted women in a positive manner (colored or white) growing up, well I couldn’t find one that looked like me neither. The reason the images that are fed to the masses is masculine based are because who is behind the camera “MEN.” They show or display what is appealing to their eyes not the viewers, example: https://youtu.be/hZkC_fNxmQk. Women do 80 percent of the shopping in their household, but are unable to find things that stimulate them in a positive way. We need to change the people behind the lens in order to correct what we see in front of it.