Applying Different Theories of the Gaze: bell hooks and Sturken & Cartwright

This week, we are reading bell hooks' "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators" and Sturken & Cartwright's "Changing Concepts of the Gaze."  Each theorist provides a new insight and outlook on the gaze.  In bell hooks' article, she details the role of black women as spectators, both historically and in today's society.  Sturken and Cartwright's text examines a reversal of the gaze that occurs when men are portrayed as sexual objects.

Prompt 1:

Sturken & Cartwright's "Changing Concepts of the Gaze" states:

Contemporary visual culture involves a highly complex array not only of images and spectators but also of gazes.  Whereas many contemporary advertisements continue to sell products through traditional gender codes by portraying women in demure, seductive poses for a possessive male gaze, other ads play off these traditions by reversing them and showing both the pleasure of looking at men as objects and the power of women in action. (Sturken and Cartwright 133)

The text illustrates how modern media often reverses traditional roles of the gaze. Many films and advertisements turn men into sexualized objects and subsequently give women power as the gazers.

Figure 1: Movie Still from Magic Mike

Retrieved from: New York Times' Website 

Consider the film Magic Mike. One could argue that Magic Mike defies the concept of the traditional male gaze.  In the movie, Magic Mike's entire body is on display while he's dancing provocatively for the females surrounding him.  His character is ultimately subject to the gaze, as myriad women fawn over his physique. 

For this prompt, we propose that you find another example of a movie, commercial, or advertisement that contradicts the traditional concept of the male gaze. Please post your findings and discuss how they reverse the stereotypical male gaze.  You could also further examine Magic Mike as an example.

Figure 2: Magic Mike Film Trailer

Retrieved from: YouTube 

Prompt 2:

Figure 2: Man with Raw Steaks
Retrieved from: NY Daily News

This image is of a muscular man with multiple raw steaks on a plate looking directly at his viewers. In "Changing Concepts of the Gaze," it says that "contemporary theories that engage with issues of race, ethnicity, and sexuality as factors in the construction of the gaze allow for much more nuanced understandings of the processes of identification with the image and the complex ways in which images interpellate spectators" (Sturken and Cartwright 136).  This man's gaze can represent several things to many different people as suggested above.  Think from the perspective of either a vegetarian, an elderly woman, or a homosexual male.  What might his gaze mean?  Is it effective in advertising the meat?  How might this image be different if the gaze was on the meat instead of the viewer?

Citations:
bell hooks, “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators,” The Feminism and Visual 
Culture Reader, ed. Amelia Jones. London: Routledge, 2003. 94-105. Print.

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. “Changing Concepts of the Gaze.” Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ., 2009. 130-136. Print.

Blog Post:
Brittany Andersen and Kayola Davis-Tabb

Women in the Media and Society

So this week we are reading “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies” by Susan Bordo and we are watching Miss Representation in class. Susan Bordo discusses how images and the media portray ideals for women and girls. Plastic surgery and age defying methods are a focus at the beginning, but then she transitions to gender differences for toys and videos by talking about her daughter. Miss Representation depicts how society sees women and how the media portrays them. For example, how men see woman in politics and how women feel the need to compete with other women.

For this blog posting we have two options for discussion:

Figure 1: Halle Berry - Catwoman.
Retrieved from: http://tytempletonart.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/the-top-ten-catwoman-actresses-2/

Option 1: Miss Representation talked about women in film and television. The point was made that there are very few women protagonists that are complex or have story lines void of love stories or involving any men sexually/romantically. An argument could be made that Catwoman is an example of such a woman protagonist. Not only are there few women protagonists, but also few producers, writers, and directors that are women in the industry. We propose that you find an example of a woman protagonist who is not what the film deems the “bangable” hero or the chick flick heroine. On the flip side, we propose that you find a blatant example of such a “bangable” hero or a classic chick flick heroine. Try to post a video, image, trailer, or movie poster that you can find with one these women and discuss how they are an example of one of these stereotypes or not.

Option 2: In “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies” by Susan Bordo, there is a point about gender and advertisements along with consumer items. If you ever walked into a toy store there is a girl aisle and a boy aisle. The only aisles that sometimes you can find gender neutral toys are the baby aisles. We would like it if you could find an advertisement that is gender neutral for toys or any other consumer item. Or find one that is so completely stereotypical, that it is very obvious. On the other hand, find a toy or an example from a store that is gender neutral as well. Think about Susan’s article and make argument about how this reflects and affects children in our society. Below we've included commercials that we found are very gender specific, along with one little girl's opinion about toys and gender.

Figure 2: Nerf Strike Commercial. 

Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjla695Ju0

Figure 3: Easy Bake Oven Commercial. 

Retrieve from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lreImESlrG0

Figure 4: Riley on Marketing.

Retrieved: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CU040Hqbas