Gaze can usually explain in many ways. In the digital world, everyone is under others’ gaze or surveillance. It is related to gender, race, and eroticism. Like what John walker and Sarah Chaplin said in the book that “gazed upon can be pleasurable or painful” in their visual culture research (1997, 97).” Some people like the feeling when they attract attention from others. However, this also means that more and more people will pay attention to you to judge the things like photos or articles you post online. Nowadays, we usually say that females are under the male gaze. Men have a fixed standard of beauty for women like thin, tall, and white. Therefore, many girls whose mind is not mature and don’t have their own ideas will try to cater to the standard aesthetics of men. Many girls are afraid to post photos of their good figures online. They are afraid of being labeled as pornographic. Gaze can change a person a lot. It is terrible that people may unconsciously go to change themselves to adapt to the “observer”. We need to be clear about where is our values and beauty and don’t influence by others’ gaze.
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I find the connection between gaze and surveillance very interesting and the experience in which people have to modify their view and identity of themselves just to fit the observers gaze especially given the fact that the male gaze culture has been so normalized that it starts to manifest unconsciously in people’s minds.
The continued surveillance has been a main theme of the media world we live in today and as you said, it could either be painful or pleasurable depending on who is viewing or who is being subjected to the view