When we talk of a gaze, we must think of looking in the first place. Looking is the act of viewing or observing an object with our eyes. Therefore, we can note that a gaze is a sustained look with intensity enough to draw attention. Looking is an important activity in our life because it is the one that establishes the environment around us. Therefore, we can deduce that looking is associated with knowledge, meaning that we have to see something first to know what we have observed. Scholars have devoted themselves to studying the aspect of looking, developing various theories to outline what a look entails. They have also concluded that human beings must see first to talk. For one to look and see successfully, other senses are also involved. Gazing is the hyperbole of looking with complexity, more than what we think (Seppänen, Janne 2006 n p). The power of a gaze can be seen through its comprehensive and intense application in cinema studies through the spectatorship theory (Anderson & Susan 2003, p. 303). Therefore, this paper focuses on expressing the application of the spectator theory of a gaze in films, the power structures of a virtual culture, and various criticisms about it. A gaze is essential in expressing our feelings in multiple contexts (Seppänen, Janne 2006 n p).
Scholars have studied a gaze for decades and have come up with various theories describing what a gaze entails and the implications of a gaze in our lives. One of the overriding contexts of a gaze is the spectatorship theory, developed in the 1970s when film technology was seeing an exponential improvement (Film & Silent, n d). The theory is said to have emerged from two theories developed by scholars of cinema and art history. It is ideally depicted from Jean-Paul Sartres, a Frenchman who developed the theory of looking, in relation to the theory of psychoanalytic developed by Jacques Lacan (Daigle &Christine, 2009 n.p). The theory of spectatorship ideally presupposes the position of spectator watching a film at a cinema, with the idea of defining their own images just by making a particular gaze. The spectator in this context becomes the subject to the image in their view, having the images used in a film to address them in various institutions. The theory of spectatorship is heavily applied in cinematic films focusing more on the technology of cinema retrospectives, as a figure of speech for the consciousness of the viewer.
Scholars have come up with various notions concerning the stereotypic nature of commercial films, as well as other visual elements of culture since the earliest history of art. Particularly, two scholars came up with mind blowing theories that have a similarity of criticizing the way gazing is applied in films. The “Male Gaze” is a feminist narrative, which oversees the depiction and portrayal of women in art, and more particularly in films (Fiorella, Olivia, 2022 n p). The theory describes that women are always portrayed as subjects to men, and expressed in a limiting manner to fulfil the psychological desires of a patriarchal society (Fiorella, Olivia, 2022 n p). The male gaze theory complains that the entire process of film production is always designed to privilege men in all ways possible. For example, it articulates that the perspective of the camera in a film is characterized by the disproportionate nature of assigning roles in production whereby most of the positions are dominated by men. It also says that the cinema films are usually made to ensure the capture of the spectators’ attention to focus entirely on the screen, inevitably taking the view and perspectives being showcased, and expressing men as superiors (Fiorella, Olivia, 2022 n p). The perspective of the characters stereotypic is also carried out to favor men.
The male gaze theory is well described by John Berger in his famous book “ways of seeing” which presents an overriding argument concerning the history of art. Berger argued out that women are often pushed away from the first angle of view and placed away from male figures in most drawings and paintings. He devised a famous phrase, “men act, women appear” following the assumption that the viewer retains more power than the person being looked at (Fiorella & Olivia, 2008 n p). Laura Mulvey is a great scholar, and often criticized the commercial Hollywood films. She had formulated a critique by challenging the Hollywood films having to portray women in a stereotypic manner, as subjects. She wrote a compelling text, “visual pressure and narrative cinema” demonstrating various intersections of several gazes used in cinema (Fiorella & Olivia, 2008 n p). She talks of a movie which has a male protagonist who has power over a female subject all through, fulfilling the notion of “male gaze.” She explicitly applies the theory of psychoanalytic to presume the definition of the intersection of gazes, and reasoned out that the position of a woman in that cinema, from the actress to the spectators must overlook the male protagonist (Fiorella & Olivia, 2008 n p).
Psychoanalytic theory behind the context of looking has been extensively researched. Jacques Lacan did a substantial study on the power of looking, relying on the psychology of a child’s development (Lacan, Jacques 2014 p97). In 1949, Lacan found out that after the mother dependency stage in an infant that ranges between 1-6 months, a child enters the “mirror stage.” The mirror stage denotes the ability of a child to distinctively distinguish between themselves and others, simply by looking and understanding a mirror image. Qualities such as ego are developed in this mirror stage according to Lacan, when a child develops their body’s autonomy, which leads to fascination and alienation with their own image, therefore ego is a result of mirror image effect (Lacan, Jacques 2014 p100). The image reflection of mirror was referred to as an “ideal I” by Lacan (Lacan, Jacques 2014 p101). In this context of the mirror stage, looking, which graduates to gazing for one to substantially experience their self though an image, demonstrates the power of gazing. If gazing at a mirror intensifies, it may lead to increased anxiety, psychosis and even neurosis (Seppänen, Janne 2006 n p). Lacan said that children are able to recognize their image in a mirror, which results to pleasure, then to a confrontation with the reality of one’s self and finally accepting that the presenting image is their own self-reflection (Lacan, Jacques 2014 p100).
In the film industry, a gaze is always used to express power, and it dominates the entire process of a cinema movie production. Artists predominantly evoke their emotions in films and other forms of virtual art through a gaze, looking directly through the eyes (Anderson & Susan 2003 p. 303). The choice of an artist to capture a gaze to express something have decisive effects in determining the viewer’s perspective. For example, the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre by Leonardo da Vinci is expressed with an out looking gaze, making it draw attention of viewer with a confronting seek of attention and therefore becomes hard to get ignored. If da Vinci chose to present the painting with a side looking image, it would have a devastating consequence, because most viewers would comfortably ignore it because it would not have the direct confronting feature. Through the power of a gaze, artists have unprecedented control over their subjects, in this context are the viewers or the spectators (Seppänen, Janne 2006 n p). Researchers found out that people tend to get more attentive, and ready to spend much time observing and studying works of art that gaze directly at them (Anderson & Susan 2003 p. 303).
Bell Hooks conducted her research on the power of a gaze, and came up with a notion she referred to as “oppositional gaze.” She described her childhood experiences, by citing that she would be punished whenever she gave an elder person an intense direct look, which was perceived to be confrontational, resistant, and a way of trying to challenge authority (Hooks Bell, 2012 p290). She depicts the concept of a gaze, in relation to sexism and racism. Bell reflects back to the period of slavery in America, to develop her notion of oppositional gaze to demonstrate the relationship between black women’s spectatorship in a white and black film setting. Black peoples’ oppression in real life translated to the same on the screen, which consequently led to a nature of rebellion desires to gaze (Hooks Bell, 2012 p297). The desire to gaze becomes the oppositional gaze in this context. When we look back to the era of slavery, a direct gaze from a black person to their master was perceived as a sign of resistance and defiance towards their masters, and was a warrant to corporal punishment. In relation to the film industry, white supremacy continues to be upheld, forcing the blacks, especially women, to develop an expository spectatorship throughout the films, as they have to look at white people. Black films later came to challenge the racial stereotypic films, but were faced with endless critics, shaped by the perspectives of racial relations (Hooks Bell, 2012 p288). However, the oppositional gaze is a controversial notion, because as women tend to be prohibited from giving white men a direct gaze, black men can make a confrontational gaze to a white man without causing trouble. Oppositional gaze is therefore a controversial topic of whether it is a gender or a racial issue.
In conclusion, the spectator theory is a key element in understanding the power of a gaze to demonstrate the power structures in virtual culture, not without critics. The spectator theory was developed in the 1970s with the emergence of exponential development in film technology, in reference to the theory of look proposed by Jean-Paul Sartres and the psychoanalytic theory by Jacques Lacan. Scholars did extensive research on the power of a look, with its relationship to the art and film industry and came up with the notion of a “male gaze.”. John Berger wrote a mind blowing book concerning the stereotypic nature of a gaze in gender, and was supported by Laura Mulvey, who focused on the intersections of several gazes in relation to Hollywood films. Jacques Lacan developed a theory known as the “mirror stage” which illustrates the power of a look and its essence in child development. The power of a gaze is depicted in film productions, with the deliberate control of viewers or spectators, by expressing strong out looking gazes in films. Oppositional gaze was a theory developed by Bell Hooks, which tries to explicitly showcase the racial stereotypic nature of films within the black and white setting, with black women being viewed as lesser actors.
Works Cited
Anderson, Susan C. “The Power of the Gaze: Visual Metaphors.” A Companion to the Works of Arthur Schnitzler 2443 (2003): 303.
Daigle, Christine. Jean-Paul Sartre. Routledge, 2009.
Film, Silent. “In the 1970s and’80s, film theorists developed ‘‘spectator theory,’’.”
Hooks, Bell. “The oppositional gaze: Black female spectators.” Black American Cinema. Routledge, 2012. 288-302.
Fiorella, Olivia. “The Gaze Through Which You See: An Analysis of the Male and Female Gaze in 19th Century Literature.” (2022).
Lacan, Jacques. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the “I” as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience1.” Reading French Psychoanalysis. Routledge, 2014. 97-104.
Seppänen, Janne. The power of the gaze: An introduction to visual literacy. Vol. 20. Peter Lang, 2006.
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