Comments on: Obscuring the Male Gaze

By: dragonfly

dragonfly — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:21:24 +0000

I’m watching the the show Mad Men at the moment and it is beautiful and artful because of the way it uses symbolism. The the end of the opening credits show a man on a couch, in silhouette, languidly holding a cigarette. There’s more to it. But gosh, it’s so beautiful to see a conscious depiction, a real recognition and a disclaimer like that. That silhouette puts the viewer right into the hole it creates and says “Look at this, does this look right to you? Are you this man?” Any literary critic would have a field day with it. I highly recommend it.

By: tekanji

tekanji — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 01:42:56 +0000

Kimiko: I don’t know, although that’s an interesting theory. I definitely wouldn’t put too much weight on it (for instance, I identify as pansexual and I am pretty good at recognizing the male gaze, where another woman I know who identifies as bisexual is oblivious to it), but without taking a deeper look into it I can’t rule it out, either.

By: Kimiko

Kimiko — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:08:11 +0000

Could it be that lesbian women recognize such examples of male gaze more readily than het women? Maybe het women, compared to lesbians, pay less attention to women than men? Or maybe het women are more used to primping and posing to be attractive to men so that they don’t notice this when a fictional woman does it too?

By: FAQ: What is the “male gaze”? « Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog

FAQ: What is the “male gaze”? « Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 03:23:08 +0000

[...] tekanji (Official Shrub.com Blog): Obscuring the Male Gaze [...]

By: The Average Gamer » Sexy Dreamfall - The Results

The Average Gamer » Sexy Dreamfall - The Results — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:55:25 +0000

[...] but hey, free poll. « Previous post Filed under: News — @ 4 April, 2007 at 8:54 pm Permalink Get our new posts in your email or feedreader [...]

By: Collie’s Bestiary » What don’t we see?

Collie’s Bestiary » What don’t we see? — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:27:13 +0000

[...] The article, Obscuring the Male Gaze by Andrea Rubenstein, is well worth reading. It’s a fascinating review of how pervasive and ‘unseen’ the objectification of women is in our society, such that women themselves sometimes no longer notice it! I find that both sad, and frightening. What wrongs and injustices was I blindly accepting, because they are so ‘normalized’ in my culture that I cannot even see them any more? More importantly — how do I open my eyes? [...]

By: tekanji

tekanji — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 23:11:06 +0000

I don’t have time to respond to all the wonderful comments I’ve gotten. As soon as I have some time, I’ll try to be a real participant in the discussion.

Zebee: this is a discussion on the sexualization of women in comic books, not men. While image analysis of men in comics is important, it is not the focus of this post and by bringing it up you’re invoking the â€œWhat About the Mens?â€ Phallusy, which is in violation of #6 of our discussion rules. If you want to continue posting here, you need to read and obey those rules. Thanks!

By: Zebee

Zebee — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 22:09:51 +0000

I agree that women are secualised in comics. But so are men. They all have an idealised male body, they spend a hell of a lot of time in very stereotyped male activities and poses. He man macho bullshit all of it. Sure, they aren’t portrayed as available in the same way, their objectification is different. But it’s not only women.

By: masale.wallah

masale.wallah — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:16:34 +0000

Apropos your post, you’ll find this web essay interesting.

http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/powerpose/index.html

By: yocibox

yocibox — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 21:49:59 +0000

aha! Vampirella lo and behold the link I wanted was part of the same carnival as this post, hooray for organization