Saturday, February 25, 2017

Media and African American Actors

The male gaze is the unconditioned stimuli which are the female sight that turns into a conditioned response. Female worry and raise her anxiety level due to the fact she wants to meet the now conditioned response of the male. 
" she is not naked as she is, she is naked as the spectator sees her"(Berger,50) The United States of America is considered as the pinnacle of freedom and the mother of sexual freedom. America is looked up to as a heaven that many dreams of reaching. But what is shocking is that Europe has been expression more sexual freedom especially in media. Nudity is not serious on the tv screen, and they do not over react at the sight of the female body. As this quote illustrates a woman is only naked by the way she is looked at. One can be sitting in the same room as the woman she can change in front of him, but at the same time he could not see her "naked." In contrast after a long conversation with an. Individual they might become bald, and fragile    After they have the exposed themselves to you.

The pervasive form of vision is conditioned in all males growing up. Girls are seen as weak creatures that are only created for the enjoyment of man. Their dress, their makeup, their actions are all geared for a man's fun and pleasure. Every media platform helps develop this idea which leads to the growth of these negative notions. "The consequence of this misframing  are important to young been searching for ways to be a man." (Kimmel). Woman as objects for man All children growing up have the same dreams, and wishes tell they get to middle and high school. The shocking thing is that no one pays attention to when and how these dreams and values change. For boys they desire manhood. This manhood is illustrated in movies as violence and dominating woman. For girls, womanhood means more makeup. Boys sexuality and emotions are suppressed the more suppress they become, the greater the chance of violent release. This is seen in the number of shooting and suicides nationwide. In psychology, the science of describing the relationship between physical (objective) and a psychological (subjective) event is called psychophysics. This could be used to understand scopophilic instinct which is the pleasure of looking at another person as an erotic object.( Mulvey 841)
The media, as well as the movies, have erotic and voyeuristic nature to them. Woman are quickly turned into "passive raw material for the active game of man ... until the structure of representing adding to the ideology of the patriarchy order . ( Mulvey 841)


We live in a society that places so much pressure and value on the idea of perfection. From music. To sports,  to even the birth of a child seeking perfection leads to madness. This leads to a society that is controlled and the death of freedom which in return kills humanity. Bell Hooks talks about the power and monitoring that the media had and still has. The oppositional gaze is described as a different way to re-analyze and critically think of the press that is forced upon each. This was a kind of rebellion against the white supremacy in movies and media. A result of this revolution black media and cinema started. " the gaze has been and is a site of resistance for colonized black people globally.(Bell Hooks 2). As a child growing up the gaze is critical. Some societies say it is disrespectful to look at parents and that you should look down. In contrast, other countries want you to look at the person yelling at you or teaching you because looking away is disrespectful. I never really thought about how critical this gaze could be. A simple yet very powerful human habit that is innately done by ever living creature. Hooks describes how this same gaze was seeing as the rebellion by the African American slave to his master. The same way the media doesn't show the life and experiences of American Americans to the same extent as the white man's life is portrayed in movies.  This is why there is a black entertain network, and even independent black movie awards show. Something fascinating and sad is the notion that every African American actor had been asked or worn a dress. How can the only way great artists such as Terry Crew have to wear a dress to make a dollar? What the African American Actor forced to do

Children growing up are exposed to these images and have them in the back of their heads. They see that society doesn't black man unless he is a sports star or  Rapper. Even those two are looked at negatively being compared to beasts and associated with crime and violence.











       Work Cited

  • Berger, John. Chapter 2-3 Ways of Seeing. 1972.
  • Hooks, Bell. Understanding Patriarchy, The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and love.Washington press,2004 
  • Hooks, Bell, The Oppositional Gaze, Black looks: Race and representations. South End Press, 1992
  • Mulvey,Laura, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Film Theory and Criticism, Introductory Readings New York OXFORD 1999

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