The Gaze: Male and Oppositional Gazes in Western Media Culture

In Western media, the male gaze refers to the controlling visual images of women that are constructed and reinforced by men. As cultural constructors, men often sexualize these visual images, which exclusively represent the standard Western cultural standard of beauty - i.e., Anglo-European, thin, big-breasted women. Therefore, the woman in the image becomes objectified. She is no longer a woman, but a visual object that is gazed upon by men, available for the sole purpose of inciting visual, sensual and sexual pleasure for him.


A fine example of the male gaze in action would be this scene from the 1955 Marilyn Monroe film The Seven Year Itch, directed by (male director) Billy Wilder. The most infamous scene of the film, and arguably one of the most memorable cinematic scenes in pop culture, it depicts Marilyn Monroe, who is wearing a dress, walking down a city street with a male companion. She stops to walk across an air vent above the subway tracks. "You feel the breeze from the subway?" she asks her male companion. "Isn't it delicious?" The camera then pans down to Monroe's exposed legs, now visible from under her raised skirt, and focuses on them for several moments. When the camera pans up, Monroe's face is lost in ecstasy, obviously unaware of how her male companion is walking around her, cocking his head to the side, and sizing her up: he is enacting the male gaze. When he is finished leering, he suggestively replies, "Sorta cools the ankles, doesn't it?"

Despite the fact that most women in skirts or dresses would avoid a subway air vent at all costs, Monroe's character is displayed as a woman who not only seeks out the subway air vent, but willingly steps over it, spreads her legs, and allows the camera (which is representing the male audience) to get a good, long look at her revealed lower body as she tosses her head and giggles in pleasure. Monroe is deeply sexualized: the image of her in this scene represents a visual image of a woman set up on a pedestal for the sole purpose of providing visual and sexual stimulation for its male audience. Her male companion overtly represents the male gaze as he indiscreetly drinks in her image and then approves of her performance - her pleasure is only displayed as a performance for his pleasure - with a sexually charged comment.

While this example can be used to describe how images of women in the media are controlled and constructed, it is important to note that Monroe is a white female. The images of African-American women in Western media are not only as controlled and constructed as images of white females are, but furthermore, are marginalized and heavily stereotyped based on racial bias, if not made outright invisible. Author bell hooks, in her essay, "The Oppositional Gaze," discusses how black females establish an "oppositional gaze" in which they can reject the images thrown at them by the patriarchal, Anglo-centric media by looking at these images with a critical eye. hooks points out that the very privilege of being able to look is already a rejection of the societal portrayal of African-Americans as "unworthy" of looking at white people. This oppositional gaze was indeed a political one as well as a critical one: hooks notes that the women who take on this gaze often do so to directly confront the white supremacist politics that are interlaced with many portrayals of black women in media.

Why is the male gaze pervasive in Western media? Because it has succeeded in dividing and conquering women as a group. Unfortunately, the male gaze is not solely male anymore. After years of oppression, many Western women have internalized the insecurities and self-hatred that have grown out of the male gaze and now look at other women with a "female gaze." This female gaze is not one of sisterhood or solidarity, but instead one of patriarchal judgement. Western media has made it not only acceptable, but "cool" for women to expect other women to always look a certain way, be sexual a certain way, and to act a certain way. This is a recycling of the male gaze, but this time perpetuated by women.


As a female, the male gaze effects my life on a day-to-day basis. I am programmed by society to care deeply about what men, and others, think of my appearance. Like the image of Monroe in The Seven Year Itch, society tells me that, as a woman, I must constantly be putting myself on display for the gratification of males. This conflicts deeply with both my agency as a woman and my identity as a feminist, and is a source of daily struggle. As a media consumer and future media maker, I make great strides to follow the lead of bell hooks and consistently assert my oppositional gaze to the male gaze. I subscribe to Bitch Magazine, a non-profit feminist magazine that devotes itself to recognizing and rejecting framework of the patriarchy in pop culture, and I actively read feminist blogs and Twitter feeds, such as Feministing and The Happy Feminist. In the future, I hope to be part of the creation of media that contributes to real women's bodies and existences being heard, seen and appreciated for their accomplishments, rather than being objectified and expected to serve an oppressive cultural norm.