The male gaze...or why I don't watch the US version of Being Human

[shadowkat]

This post on the male gaze, ganked from more than one person on my correspondence list - sort of clarifies one of the many reasons the US version of Being Human holds 0 appeal for me and is somewhat unwatchable. But it also depicts how prominent the male gaze is in American culture. I honestly do not know if this is true world-wide. Can't really tell from the exports. The Japanese cinema I've seen, specifically anime and the Chinese cinema - seems to indicate it is, albeit differently. French cinema - seems to be somewhat equal on the topic. British? Hard to tell - so much of the stuff that gets exported is parlour room dramas or costume dramas a la The King's Speech. There are a few shows like Doctor Who, Torchwood, Being Human - but not many. You tell me? Do you think the male gaze is a world-wide phenomena, just differently expressed? Because I really have no clue. Am hesitant to generalize because that way leads stupid assumptions.


Will state that the above post reminded me a lot of well this:

Can't find a picture of Naked Spike - so just imagine it. (I know weird, but it's late).


http://nerdsinbabeland.com/archives/2872

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FemaleGaze


Anyhow, it reminds me of some very interesting discussions I had with male friends and fellow fans of Buffy while it was airing during the sixth season. They were whining about Spike always being naked.
One friend stated, actually they both stated it - "I am only interested in seeing more naked Spike, if Sarah (Buffy) is naked too. We should get to see her too." To which I remember replying, hmmm, like we get to see Lilah in the all-together on Angel, but Wes fully clothed. "Well, that's different." Right. OR "like we see women on most shows with their breasts and buts, but never see the male genitilia.

What hit me in both conversations, was the shock and dismay from the guys at seeing Spike nude, Spike as a sex symbol, with his shirt off. Same deal with Riley, Xander, Angel, and well most of the men in the series - while women were fully clothed, albeit in sexy attire. It should be noted that Buffy's shows target audience was young women. Men - really weren't the target here. Actually I'm not sure the network cared if the men tuned in.

Grey's Anatomy and Sex in the City are similar - the target audience is women, so the gaze is female.
The guys are hunks. They are shown topless and nude. The women either under a sheet or fully clothed.
Same with Being Erica - we see the guys looking hunky, not the girls.

You can always tell who the target audience is. In daytime soap operas - men have their shirts off, the good looking men, the girls rarely are shown in anything revealing. Or that revealing.

So there is a female gaze...it just depends on if women are the target group. That's not to say we aren't a sexist society.

Is this objectifying? I'm not entirely sure. Yes and no. Being turned on by the human body isn't necessarily a bad thing. I guess it is how it is being used and depicted? I mean - look at American celebrities - from Marilyn Monroe to James Dean and well, Rob Lowe, Brad Pitt, Ian Sommerland, and sigh, Brittany Spears. They are to a degree "sex symbols".

Also look at your friends icons and ahem, banners. I mean - the banner I got at No Rest for the Wicked Awards of a sexy Spike was not work safe - so I couldn't post it to my lj homepage and still access that page at work. Was that objectification and the female gaze? Hell yes. Is it wrong?
I don't think so....? I don't think this is as black and white as we want it to be. I think it falls into ambiguous moral ground...a sort of cloudy gray area?

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I watched Being Human US for the first time since the premiere tonight. It's weird because the writing isn't thatnot good)... but something just isn't right. It just isn't. It's the casting and the dialog. The story isn't so awful, but the dialog is. And the casting is just so damn blah.

And, yes, anyone watching Soaps or Buffy or SATC knows there's female gaze, but the primary reason it's so noteworthy is that it's such a rarity in the culture overall. I was watching "Book of Eli" this weekend and it was striking there that the women were only there to be victimized and saved. Each woman was helpless. Yeah, they made some effort to show one female as being empowered by Eli mentoring her... but they also cast her as prostitute so, yeah, still not working for me. The women were all there to give the hero someone to 'protect' (Ludicrous movie, but interesting art direction and cinematography).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

but the primary reason it's so noteworthy is that it's such a rarity in the culture overall.

No disagreement there. 90% of the movies released this year either featured the male gaze prominantly or relegated women to a subordinate role.

One's that do feature women in the lead - place them in a highly sexualized context that is appealing to adolescent or young men. (ie. Sucker Punch - with a bunch of female heroines fighting their mental illness by battling villians in a fantasy world - but they are dressed like hot Catholic school girls, in sexually alluring attire, blond. It's a film featuring girls in the lead but aimed at turning on boys. Or any number of rom-coms such as Knocked Up. Even the film about Lesbians, The Kids are All Right - was directed towards men, with the sperm donor
turning on and having a hot affair with one of the women (a typical male fantasy) Actually, without exception all the Oscar nominated films that I saw (can't comment on Winter's Bone) were directed towards a "male" sensibility and/or featured the "male" gaze - even Black Swan.).

TV is actually somewhat better in the US than film. The female gaze exists more within it and there are stronger roles for women. In part because men don't tend to watch scripted dramas, most men watch sports or reality shows or news (not all, but the vast majority) or they play video games. So scripted dramas tend to be largely directed towards women. (They air different
ads during them than during the sports shows).

[angearia.livejournal.com]

can't comment on Winter's Bone

Oh! You must watch Winter's Bone. I thought there was an interesting development in the male and female group power dynamics.

I'd be interested in your thoughts if you do watch it. And now that I'm pondering the gaze for Winter's Bone, I don't think I can qualify it as male or female. Rather, it felt... human.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think it's on my netflix somewhere. Probably should pull it up to the top again, admittedly curious about it - got rave reviews from practically everyone who has seen it on lj.

It appears to be the only film that doesn't do either gaze, but it is also the only one that was done outside the studios and
Hollywood system, with no big name actors promoting it.

Being Human

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

watched Being Human US for the first time since the premiere tonight. It's weird because the writing isn't thatnot good)... but something just isn't right. It just isn't. It's the casting and the dialog. The story isn't so awful, but the dialog is. And the casting is just so damn blah.

Agreed. I was just bored both times I tried watching it. Didn't hold my interest, I'd wander off and do something else.

I think it's a combination of script/acting and direction.