Ways of Seeing/Viewing

The male gaze is the males eye's looking or glancing upon women as an object. And by not viewing the woman for herself and as an object to be looked at, the male gaze consents the man to fantasize about the object he is viewing. Most Paintings, photos, film, and just about every kind of media up to date is created with the male viewer/spectator in mind. Media aims to feed the male ego and fantasy. In "Ways of Seeing" John Berger said "Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at" and "A woman is a sight to be looked at". His theory is proven through the anaylsis of nude paintings and relevant advertisement today.

In popular culture the male is still the viewer in which media is aiming to please. Men are the watchers and women are the watched. Take this ad for a Show called 'Girl Racers' about Female Nascar racers, http://f00.inventorspot.com/images/boobs6.jpg. Why would showing a womans breast in a nascar bathsuit top convince woman to watch this show? It wouldn't convince them and it doesnt matter that it wouldnt convince them because women are not the viewers this ad is aim for. Perhaps it should be, seeing as how it is woman who are racing and this show is a very cool milestone for women in Nascar. The woman in this photo is nameless, faceless and powerless. Her chest is a sight. A sight inviting men to look, to fantasize about her breats and perhaps watch the show to fantasize a bit more.

Berger also mentions in 'Ways of Seeing' that in many nudes the objects(women) in the paintings held mirrors or had mirror near them. This was done to take the blaim away from the male viewer. If the female is looking at herself then the male is looking at a women looking at herself. But in fact it is not so. The woman is not just looking at herself but looking at herself being looked at. In film today film makers are prodominantly male. And since it is the male that is the possessor of the gaze females are constantly objectified on screen. The male film maker controls the perspective(the gaze) and very often wants you to identify with the male protagonist. Wanting you identify with him is wanting the men to want to be him and have what he has, which is usually a girl . Mulveys explains, "The man controls the film phantasy...is the bearer of the look of the spectator...structuring the film around a main controlling figure with whom the spectator can identify...the character in the story can make things happen." Film makers construct film this way to make the men want to be this character and the women want to be with this character. But some of us can see through this facade.

I can honestly say I have not watched a film, show, video, saw an advertisement or listened to a song without questioning how women were being objectified in it or by it since I've read the articles assigned in MEDP384. The sexism and volgarity surrounding women in all types of media is astonishing. The female body is shown casually in so many films today. One example I mentioned in class was the movie in theaters right now, "The mechanic" In the sex scene between Jason Statham and Mini Anden, Mini is shown completely naked and Jason is hardly shown at all. Except for the close up's of his hands constandly groping Mini Andens body and his face. There is a link to a few still shots of the scene below. Throughout the whole scene I kept asking myself is this necessary? And if it's completely necessary that her breast and backside be shown several times, why is it not necessary to show Stathams? Our class discussions helped me find the answer, which is that since men do not want to see Jason Statham naked it is not shown and that the scene is only for the male viewers. http://shesocrazy.com/images/content/MiniAnden_TheMechanic1.jpg

The oppositional gaze is the gaze to counteract the male gaze. It is the gaze of those who have the rebellious desire to look at those who gaze at them with defiance. Hook writes that the gaze goes back to enslaved black people being denied the right to look and what an extraordinary example of the power of looking this is. The oppositional gaze had become "a site of resistance for colonized black people globally" says hook. The female black spectator obtained this oppositional gaze for additional reasons. The female black spectator could not identify with their on scene portrayals nor with white female portrayals. Being detached from a film this way allowed for the female black spectator to question more and resist what they did not see as truth.

sunny disposition and alphabet soup problems; this question plagues me daily!

Gosh, who am I? This kind of self-descriptive writing makes my palms sweat as I type. Providing a summary of self fills me with an odd panicked discomfort that I can only liken to the unease of meeting the parents of a significant other for the first time, or arriving to a class late blushing with an awkward gait. Unprepared. The worst. There is a strange shame in admitting that, as a 21 year old Media Studies student, though I have a pretty lofty career and life plan, (I want to be the next Katie Couric) I am incredibly unsure of how I'll get there. For as long as I was cognizent, I have experienced reality in a happy state of constant flux, punctuated by moments of bliss, nostalgia, and a low burning ever-present frustration, probably resultant of my ADHD.

Oh another alphabet soup learning disability... how original. Plenty of people have learning differences, being inattentive doesn't make me unique or special, but as it was undiagnosed throughout my kid years, my ADHD has played a huuuuge part in who I am, I grew up without explanation for my special dreamy world as well as my insecurities and scholastic anxiety. I can remember myself as a third grader, with arms like popsicle sticks and thin hair wild with static in the winter, adjusting my ungodly uncomfortable Catholic school uniform skirt and staring out the window at a plastic bag hanging on the bare arm of an oak tree and feeling such a swell of unplaceable emotion as Mrs. Thouin droned on about times tables, and feeling a deep red guilt when she called me out on my inattentiveness. I was always a 'daydreamer'. A chatty brown-eyed spacecase with the best of intentions, never really on the same level as my classmates. This anecdote of grammar school distraction is illustrative of the distracted daze that made self-identify as "bad" for the majority of my childhood. I still struggle with planning and practicality, but I have begun to see my swirling thoughts as gifts, spirals of endless rotating insight and contemplation that make plastic bags look heartbreakingly relevant, like in that film American Beauty.

I suppose that listing things that I'm passionate about can be helpful in defining who I am. I adore and admire Anne Frank, I've read The Diary Of A Young Girl eight times since I was eleven, she inspired me to write. Reading her beautiful words as a fifth grader I felt as if she understood the world the same way that I did, something I hadn't really encountered. Her words struck me in such a deep, true way. "..I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

I of course love music, especially the band Neutral Milk Hotel, mostly because of their album In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, completely inspired by Jeff Mangum's admiration of Anne Frank upon his reading of her diary.

I love this city. I've wanted to live here since I was ten years old, and I am incredibly lucky to co-habitate a tiny awesome apartment with my cat, Hercules and my best friend as well as vegan culinary genius, Tina. (I could never be vegan I like cheese way too much) And though I want to live in New York forever, I still am not immune to the creeping sadness from vagabonds on the street that can pervade a sunny Wednesday afternoon. I guess I would say I'm sensitive.

I perceive myself as being warm and friendly, working as a hostess at a restaurant owned by a sleazy mobster has taught me how to flirt and schmooze emptily with old men. That's not to say that I don't enjoy flirting, because I do.

I like to write and I love to sing, I like walking and feta cheese and swings. I want more than anything in the world to make it, I want so badly to attain and maintain success and security in my adult life, doubt so often punches this desire, but of course, I ever hopeful and excited.