question of the day: Is “the gaze” (male or female) disempowering for the gazee?

It’s true that vampires have been literally defanged by Twilight, and I’ve written much about how this is a problem. But McGreevy misses his own point, which is right there: “14-year-old girl psychology.” He slides right past it. It isn’t a “female gaze” at work in Twilight so much as it is an “adolescent gaze.” An immature female gaze. If McGreevy had realized what he was saying, he might also have realized that just as it’s a terrified girl-teenager fear of sex and men that drives Twilight, it’s a terrified boy-teenager fear of sex and women that drives, you know, the depiction of the vast majority of women who appear onscreen in Hollywood films. Twilight does at least acknowledge that it is about teenagers, which cannot be said of the vast majority of “guy” films, which are populated with (allegedly) adult male characters serving an (allegedly) adult male audience and yet ogles women in a way that reduces them to body parts and potential or actual fuck toys.

Reader Sean disagrees with McGreevy too, but:

The underlying idea actually rings kind of true for me. Does the ‘gaze'’objectify, disenfranchise and disempower the gazee? I guess the obvious second question is: And if so, is this ethically a problem?

So: Is “the gaze” (male or female) disempowering for the gazee?

I think both Sean and McGreevy are missing a vital point: It’s the institutional male gaze that objectifies and disempowers women. No one is suggesting that men should not look at and appreciate women’s beauty, and any individual instance of a beautiful woman appearing onscreen is not automatically objectifying and disempowering. It’s the overwhelming dominance of the male gaze that is the problem. And two instances of a female gaze -- even if we grant McGreevy his thesis -- cannot possibly even begin to counteract centuries of the institutional male gaze dictating how our culture sees the world, and how it sees humanity.

I do find it fascinating, however, how some men, when confronted with the notion that their perspective should not rule the universe without question or quarrel, run screaming into the streets to shout about how civilization is ending.

What do you think?

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