It is easy to take the male gaze for granted because it has become so engrained in society and is so pervasive in the media. It is what informs all advertising and shapes the way the women have come to be viewed in the media – as objects. The male gaze sets women up as objects to be looked at by men. The male gaze is a concept that is used by women as well. We look at ourselves and at other women and make judgments about our desirability to men. We are programmed to obsess over the way we look and present ourselves in the most attractive light for their approval. The picture perfect portrayal of women in advertising and in entertainment has created a world where women are constantly striving for an unattainable and unrealistic model of beauty. As a woman I constantly struggle with the images of beauty put forth in magazines and reflected in T.V. and film. On the one hand I hate that I feel the need to conform to such unrealistic standards and on the other I still strive to attain the body and the look that I find and that our society finds appealing.

The oppositional gaze that Bell Hooks writes about developed out of exclusion. Black women were not being represented or included in film. The male gaze was constantly directed at white leading ladies. The oppositional gaze is a way of looking that challenges what you are looking at. Black women looked at the stereotypical representations of themselves in film and the absence of black female characters with an oppositional gaze and eventually made strides to changing their portrayal. I wonder how an oppositional gaze could affect and possibly change the way we have come to be shaped and programmed by the male gaze.