Lori J Palminteri

The male gaze is basically women being insecure about how they look all the time because they're always thinking about themselves being watched. Do I believe this? Yes and no. Yes I do believe that many women view themselves on how they are viewed but what I think has changed over the years is that men also watch themselves being watched. There are plenty of advertisements for men about 'what women want.' Axe targets teenage boys, Calvin Kline shows us what men should aspire to look like, and Enzyte tries to get men to feel self conscious about the size of their penis. Capitalism thrives on our insecurities. Nowadays the male gaze isn't limited to women. Should we be happy or sad about this? I cannot say. Why is this? Well, that's an easier question to answer...sex sells.

The oppositional gaze is nothing more than critiquing the way stereotypes in media. Oppose the gaze. There is definitely a degree of arrested development here, but bell hooks (not capitalized purposely—she seems to like this) might agree that the more stereotypes are played upon the more room there is for critiquing it. More and more being different is worshiped, and the level of provocativeness is closely related to the level of fame.

As a woman in comedy I am part of a minority. The ratio of males to females is heavy. I am going to make up statistics to illustrate my point. Let's say for every 10 male comics there are 2 women comics. You go to see a comedy show to see these 12 comics. Out of the ten male comics it is likely that six of them are very funny. Out of the two female comics, maybe only one of them really makes you giggle. This is not because women are less funny than men, there are just less women, so the probability that you'll see a funny white guy is so much higher.

Now, as a stand-up comic, I LOVE THIS. I love being part of the minority. It's easier to stand out. It's harder because people expect me not to be as funny as the six guys who just performed before me, but every time I kill, not only am I thrilled that my material worked, I am excited to have proved the stereotype wrong and make others critique the stereotype that women aren't funny.