Gaze Theory Explained Simply

At its most fundamental level, gaze theory interrogates the ways in which viewers engage with visual narratives, and how these narratives, in turn, position the viewer. But delve a bit deeper, and it becomes clear that the gaze is not just a matter of seeing and being seen—it's a powerful dynamic that reveals intricate webs of power, gender, and identity.

The gaze, as explored in media and cultural studies, is not merely an act of seeing. It is an intricate dance of power, perception, and representation. Originating from film theory but subsequently adopted and adapted across various disciplines, the gaze encompasses a multitude of perspectives: from the male gaze that objectifies female subjects in cinema, to the colonial gaze that portrays colonized people in a specific light. It's about who holds the power to look and how those being looked at are represented and understood.

Gaze Theorists

Historically rooted in psychoanalysis, the idea of the gaze emerged as a cornerstone in film theory, though its ramifications extend across various disciplines. Its evolution is closely linked to several prominent figures:

• Jacques Lacan: A French psychoanalyst, Lacan is often credited with laying the groundwork for gaze theory. He introduced the concept of the "mirror stage," where an infant recognizes itself in a mirror, marking the commencement of the individual's relationship with their own image. For Lacan, the gaze wasn't just about looking; it was about the anxiety produced in being looked at, highlighting the asymmetrical power dynamics inherent in viewing.

• Laura Mulvey: Building on Lacanian thought, British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey coined the term "male gaze" in the context of cinema. In her seminal "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" she argued that mainstream films are constructed with male viewers in mind, leading to the objectification of women. Her insights brought gender dynamics to the forefront of gaze theory, showcasing how the act of looking can be entrenched in patriarchal structures. 

• Edward Said: While not directly associated with gaze theory in the same way as Lacan or Mulvey, Said's work on "Orientalism" introduced the idea of a "colonial gaze". He described how the West views the East through a lens colored by preconceptions and stereotypes, which in turn, reinforces Western dominance and Eastern subjugation.

• Bell Hooks: Renowned for her contributions to gender and race discussions, hooks expanded the discourse around the gaze to consider intersections of race, class, and gender. She critiqued the "oppositional gaze" of Black viewers in Western cinema, discussing how Black audiences recognize and resist the racist structures in which they're portrayed.

• John Berger: Berger, a British art critic and novelist, brought a fresh perspective on gaze theory in his groundbreaking work "Ways of Seeing". This 1972 series, later adapted into a book, demystified the act of seeing, arguing that what we see is invariably influenced by a host of variables including tradition, culture, and the viewer's own individual bias. One of Berger's most salient points centered on the portrayal of women in art and advertising. He posited that women were historically depicted as objects of the male gaze, conditioned to see and be seen as objects to be appreciated, judged, or desired. By doing so, Berger underscored the entrenched gender dynamics in visual representation, asserting that women are often presented not as they are, but as they are expected to be in the eyes of male beholders. His elucidations on gaze theory emphasized the societal constructs that shape our perceptions, bridging the gap between historical art representations and contemporary visual culture.

Summary: Feminism is for Everyone by Bell Hooks

Feminism is social, cultural, moral and political advocacy encompassing gender issues such as inequality. In this regard, several writings concern the principles of feminism. The content of literary works on feminism varies, some authors aim to blindly defend the very cause of feminism, some authors, on the contrary, intend to provide information on feminism in a non-political or non-egalitarian way. Such notable content can be found in Bell Hooks' post, Feminism is for Everybody. Hooks' book gives the reader a whole new perspective on radical feminist theory. The primary intention of her Feminism is for Everyone is to bring the feminist perspective to unbelievers, apathetic and strangers. Hooks also opposes the popular notion regarding feminism as she believes these notions should receive proper attention and correction. In this way, the common misconception about the ideas of feminism will be clear to society.

In  Feminism is for Everyone Hooks rejects the usual beliefs associated with feminism and views this belief as nothing more than a myth. Hooks presents the arguments and pleas of feminism in a summarized fashion to provide a simpler context for readers as well as a new concept of what feminism should be. 

Hooks' new concept of feminism suggests a stiff fight against sexism in a benevolent society, ultimately arguing for an inclusive movement. In Feminism Is For Everyone, Hooks traces the roots of the feminist movement and gives details of what it has accomplished so far. advocacy minus anti-sexism associations (Hooks, 2000). 

The historical context of feminism is given in order to emphasize the error that has occurred along the way and to make room for the new concept of the movement. Hooks asks whether the feminist is a philosophical belief or a political cause, given that the author attacks the arguments of radical feminists. The debate over whether feminism is a philosophical belief or a political cause can also be sparked by one of the book's chapters on oppression of the sexes. The basis can be seen on the idea of ​​categorizing man as the enemy, categorizing man as the oppressor and woman as the oppressed is the main reason behind the second wave of feminism, however,  it does take away the fact that women are equally responsible. for such oppression given that it took time for the so-called oppressed to spearhead change (Hooks, 2007). Hooks goes in this direction by giving out the past mistakes of feminism and the misleading beliefs that feminists have associated with. This is because most feminists focus on the problem, not the solution. 

See also: Keeping Close To Home by Bell Hooks

Bell Hooks / Feminist Theory From Margin to Center

see our List of Great Feminist Theory Books

Keeping Close To Home by Bell Hooks - summary

“Keeping Close To Home” was written by Bell Hooks.  In this essay, the hooks speak of her journey to educate herself and not lose the sense of her origin as a working-class African-American woman. 

According to Hooks, in American society, there are three different classes that people belong to: the rich, the working, and the poor. The majority of American citizens are from the working class and this is where the Hooks family came from. Unlike hooks, many people leave their families and would be ashamed of where they came from and who they are. 

Hooks’s essay aims to argue that a working-class student should not be ashamed of where he came from and remember that he is part of his family. Most children know where they are from and who they are, but some have little idea of ​​where they are from. When they go to college, they learn who they are and why the struggles they have been taking place. They would learn "To be ashamed of where we came from, that they might never come home, or come back only to rule over them" (Keeping Close To Home). 

Many parents were afraid to let their children go to college and learn more about their country of origin and how the people they attend class with come from a richer place. Hooks saw that she came from a different background from everyone. She didn't want who she was preventing her from studying. The hooks try to tell working class students that if they believe in what they have learned and are learning in school or university, it separates you from your past. Most of the time that would happen. The brackets tell them if they “stand firm in the belief that nothing can really separate us from our past when we nurture and enrich the connection” . The past is your origin and you have had the opportunity to have a better life. You cannot be ashamed of a place where you come from and where the family is still. As you walk through life, someone will always support you. You cannot trust everyone except your family. family is one of the keys to a successful life and especially to your career. "Maintaining ties to family and community beyond classroom boundaries requires more than a cursory reminder of where you are from, where you come from".

 Keeping a good connection with family can help you function. But Hooks tried to explain to the students that their current situation was due to their family. “Open and honest communication is the most important way to maintain relationships with parents and the community as the classroom experience and background change”. Hooks’s essay wishes to argue that a working-class student should not be ashamed of where he came from and remember that he is part of his family. She explains why you shouldn't be ashamed of who you are because you find out where you are coming from. She explains the importance of class not only on money, but also on the values ​​that showed and determined behavior. Keeping the connection with family can allow you to connect with jobs or they could help you in the future.

See also: Bell Hooks / Feminist Theory From Margin to Center

Bell Hooks / Feminism is for Everyone

Carry-On Selves: How Transnational Identities Repack the Idea of Home

see our List of Great Feminist Theory Books

Summary: Bell Hooks / Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center is a Bell Hooks essaypublished in 1984, on radical feminist thought. He calls for the inclusion in the feminist movement of black women located on the "margins", invisible in American society, and ignored, according to the author, by white women who produced feminist theory and who are in turn located at " center.

Analysis of the failure of American feminism .

Bell Hooks believes that American feminism has failed in public opinion. The weakness of this movement could be explained, according to her, not by the dominant misogyny, but by the fact that it holds an incoherent discourse: feminism "carries the demands for equality of those who are privileged according to race, class, and social norms ” . Bell Hooks thus detects an ethnocentric and classist bias in a feminist language that is itself critical, moreover, with regard to sexist biases  . The way to overcome these perspective distortions as it is to rehabilitate the view racialized women and minoritized. Black women must leave the margins to which they have been relegated, to become part of the center of feminist theory and action (“moving from Margin to Center”) .

Hooks analyzes in particular Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) which, according to her, takes too narrow an approach to the reality of women, even if she considers it useful to understand the effects of sexist discrimination on housewives, graduates college, white, married, middle and upper class. hooks criticizes Betty Friedan for not discussing the experiences or needs of women without men, children, homeless, non-white or poor.

In the preface to the new edition of the book in 2000, Bell Hooks says she wrote to fill a gap, that of a theory that takes into account not only gender , but also race and class.

While American feminism is generally conceived of as an affair of women exclusively, Bell Hooks argues that men should be included in this movement. Indeed, according to this author, men are also victims of sexism , which subjects them to restrictive standards, and obliges them to mutilate themselves on one part of themselves; members of both sexes should engage in a common struggle against gender-based oppression . In addition, Hooks recalls that women Popular racialized backgrounds compete with men on racism and poverty , and that they therefore can not dissociate themselves from their companions . American feminists who exclude men from their movement, by identifying them with the "oppressor", adopt a bourgeois point of view, which obscures the question of inequality between social classes, to focus exclusively on inequality between social classes and sexes .

 

The notion of sorority masks the differences in social situation between certain groups of women; Sorority also mask the racism that sometimes separates women racialized them as separates white and racialized women . Bell Hooks proposes to replace the sorority according to her illusory by a political solidarity between groups of women  .

 

Influenced by Paolo Freire's work , Pédagogie des opprimés (1969), Bell Hooks advocates on the one hand an increased effort for the literacy of black women and, on the other hand, a decolonization of knowledge, in particular of those produced by the American feminist movement .

Bell Hooks sees education as a "practice of freedom", in the wake of Paolo Freire , but observes a certain "anti-intellectualism" on the part of a number of black activists, which she sees as an effect of their limited access. education, but also as an understandable rejection of theories poorly identified from a colonial way of thinking . Bell Hooks "shows that privileged feminists, by objectifying the experiences of black women, reduced them to objects of study or to alibis of feminist and gender studies ".

Radical feminism 

Hooks can be identified in this work as a radical feminist because of her thesis that with the system corrupted, achieving equality in such a system is neither possible nor desirable. Its approach thus distinguishes it from that of a more traditional feminism, which wants to act on the behavior of individuals, without changing social organization . Bell Hooks promotes a complete transformation of society and all its institutions , a non-violent revolution that involves the inclusion of black women on the margins of society, but also by that "of men affected by the effects of capitalist systems , racist, imperialist and colonialist and the institutionalization of the patriarchy ”

See also: Keeping Close To Home by Bell Hooks

Bell Hooks / Feminism is for Everyone

see our List of Great Feminist Theory Books