The Spectacle Of The Other Analysis

Throughout the years, and as it has become ever more prevalent in society, many scholars have researched exploitation; as well as its affects on society. The first intellectuals to do so were predominately white liberal males, intrigued with the idea of ‘difference’. Historically, the research done into this differentiation began with the idea of racism between ‘whites’ all other minorities, but has evolved into the investigation of exploitation throughout many different societal groups. Richard Dryer explains this through his definition of stereotyping, where he makes the important distinction between typing and stereotypes. According to Dryer, without the use of categories, it would be difficult, even impossible, to make sense of the world

Research on this difference has become more apparent in cultural studies over recent decades and is the focus of Stuart Hall’s article. According to Hall, there are four principle arguments about differentiation in cultural studies. The first speaks to a more linguistic argument; which highlights the importance of ‘difference’ as it is essential to attaching meaning to people, places and objects (Hall, p. 234). Hall goes on to say that though binary opposites hold value as they capture the diversity of the world, it is also a rudimentary way of establishing meaning; for example, it is by comparing ‘blacks’ to ‘whites’ and ‘males’ to ‘females,’ which enables humans to make sense of the world (Hall, p. 234). The second argument Hall makes comes from theories of language, and is referred to as the Dialogic argument (Hall, p. 234). The argument here is that there is a need for this ‘difference’ because humans can only construct meaning through their interactions (Hall, p. 234). A third argument made by Hall is anthropologically based. It is here where Hall explains that culture depends on giving things meanings by assigning them to different positions within a classificatory system (Hall, p. 235). The idea here is that this difference is created by particular traits; however, the leading criticism for this argument is that although it may appear

Mulvey focuses on the “narrative” of films to make the point that even examples of modern visual culture are organized around their delivery of a story. Her theory focuses specifically on the male ideals on both the same and opposite sex, demonstrated through modern popular culture. Where Mulvey puts emphasis on binary sex as the focus of her study, Hall broadens the scope to include all forms of minorities. He explains these differences through the use of stereotyping; specifically, he states that the majority of society’s social spaces are organized in relation to specific visible