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Response To Leonard's Essay 'What Is The Male Gaze?'

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In her essay "What is the Male Gaze?", Leonard argues that there is a clear bias towards men in media, where women are often depicted as passive objects to be looked at by men. She notes that this bias extends beyond just visual media like film and television but also influences other forms of media such as literature and advertising. Leonard's argument highlights how pervasive this issue is across various forms of media.
On the other hand, Kelly Oliver's essay "The male gaze is more relevant and more dangerous than ever" offers a more nuanced critique of the concept. She argues that while there is undoubtedly an issue with how women are portrayed in media, focusing solely on the male gaze can limit our understanding of gender dynamics in society. …show more content…

She notes that this bias extends beyond just visual media like film and television but also influences other forms of media such as literature and advertising. Leonard's argument highlights how pervasive this issue is across various forms of media.
On the other hand, Kelly Oliver's essay "The male gaze is more relevant and more dangerous than ever" offers a more nuanced critique of the concept. She argues that while there is undoubtedly an issue with how women are portrayed in media, focusing solely on the male gaze can limit our understanding of gender dynamics in society. Oliver suggests we broaden our analysis to consider how power operates more broadly across social structures.
Overall, these two essays offer important insights into an ongoing debate within feminist theory about representations of gender in popular culture. By examining both authors' perspectives on bias towards men in media and feminist critique of the male gaze, we can better understand this complex …show more content…

Women are often presented as one-dimensional characters whose sole purpose is to fulfill male fantasies. They are usually young, thin, conventionally attractive, and submissive to men's desires. This not only reinforces gender stereotypes but also perpetuates harmful ideas about femininity and beauty standards. Moreover, these representations have real-world consequences for how women are treated. The objectification of women leads to a culture where they are treated as inferior beings who exist solely for men's pleasure or entertainment. This can manifest in various forms, such as sexual harassment, assault, or violence against women.

The male gaze is more relevant today because of the proliferation of social media and digital technologies. With the rise of platforms like Instagram and TikTok, individuals have greater access to images that perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards for women. These images often reinforce traditional gender roles where women are expected to be sexually attractive to men at all times. Moreover, media algorithms prioritize content that aligns with these norms, making it difficult for alternative perspectives to gain

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In contrast to the twentieth century we still see some of this in our current day and ages. Contrasting portrayals of men and women in films leave us with the fact that we haven’t changed. Men and women are sought to have different gender roles within

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Being a young woman in America, I have stared eye to eye with the guidelines that the media has handed to me. The documentary, Miss Representation, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, discusses how the media’s objectification of women impacts the lives of girls and women across America. Miss Representation shows that as a girl watches other women

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In Abernethy’s “Male Bashing on TV”, the way that the author revealed the trend of males depicted as bumbling, lazy, and incompetent on commercials and modern TV shows irritated me Abernethy revealed in this article that the trend of men that are depicted as a minority on TV is getting worse. He shows that men in the media nowadays are shown making a fool out of themselves, doing ridiculous stunts, and overall showing idiotic characteristics unlike many men today. He blames primarily the media for depicting men as “bumbling husbands, and inept, uninvolved fathers”, in which he describes as the “comic image of men on TV” (Abernethy 351). Additionally, he states that since this has become a common theme on modern television, young boys can

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Throughout history, women have been held to certain stereotypes that place societal expectations upon them. These expectations can be viewed through various outlets of media, a major one being movies. In the movie Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, women are portrayed as dependent on men. Through the portrayal of Lisa and Jeff’s relationship and the showcasing of Miss Lonelyheart’s isolation, Hitchcock conveys the perception of a patriarchal society by utilizing various cinematic elements and film techniques.

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In the book, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas, gives insight and knowledge that digs deep into pop culture explaining how the media portrays the appearances of women that are in powerful positions in our culture. The appetencies tent undermines the actual progress of women. Douglas is interested in what these pop culture ideals shows about our culture. The way we react to women in our culture with powerful influence. What do these shows do to the female imagine in our culture?

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The reading that best supports this view is the Laura Mulvey reading “visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (Mulvey 1975). Although this reading is dated it does raise some interesting issues with regards to gender representation in cinema. Mulvey discusses the male gaze in cinema and outlines how woman are portrayed on screen from a male view point. She discusses how this could influence media in such a way that it may lead to the female section of the society to be misrepresented.

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