Gaze: Mary Margaret Clouse

What is most interesting about the idea of gaze is that it essentially forces the media consumer to look at any given media through the lens chosen by the producer. As the keyword mentioned, this is most often a heterosexual male perspective. I noticed this subconsciously in things like advertising and movies from a very young age and I feel it has a greater impact on the mind than people often understand. This idea of an objectifying male gaze reminds me of a Margaret Atwood quote that perfectly sums up the female experience and impact of consuming media created using a male gaze: “You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman.” Being constantly subjected to the male gaze then manifests internally as a form of self-criticism. Women are trained to then “assess and reject” and “control” their own bodies as heterosexual men would according to the keyword text. This action serves almost to allow women to take on the role of empowered heterosexual men, as though they intend to objectify themselves before men have the chance to, which, as Margaret Atwood explains earlier in the same quote, is not the empowering experience women might think it is. “Even pretending you aren’t catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you’re unseen, pretending you have a life of your own.” Atwood explains how this male gaze carries outside of media to an ever-present, real life psychological experience for women.