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

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Very subtle in Britian - which actually is closer to the US culturally speaking.

I recently read a report of a study done in Britain a few years ago to judge people's attitudes to nudity in TV advertisements. They showed them various commercials, some British and others from other countries, and asked them their opinion on whether it was acceptable to be shown on UK TV.

In the context of this discussion, it was amusing that most of the adverts they showed with a lot of explicit nudity were French. :-) (Tahiti shower gel, Fa body spray, etc - these were all from the mid-90s.)

The results were that most people surveyed were comfortable with nudity on screen as long as it was felt to be appropriate to the product rather than gratuitous, but they were much more uncomfortable with sexual situations, even if they had less nudity.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The results were that most people surveyed were comfortable with nudity on screen as long as it was felt to be appropriate to the product rather than gratuitous, but they were much more uncomfortable with sexual situations, even if they had less nudity.

That is actually fairly close to the US or American take on the topic. Most Americans are okay with it, as long as it is appropriate and not too gratutious.
Our media doesn't really reflect the majority sentiment on the topic. Although network television might - the PTA (Parent Television Advisory Counsel).

My impression, at least in the 1980s and 1990s in the countries I visited (went to Britian three times in that period, France twice, Germany once, Turkey once,
Australia once) - was that France was fairly open on nudity and sexuality, with little issues. Germany - it depended on which side of the Berlin wall you were on.
West Berlin was anything goes (this was 1981) and East Berlin was nothing goes, everything repressed, nothing shown. I can't help but think West Berlin was a reaction to East Berlin? At least back then? No idea what it is like now - that the two are united. Britian was more or less the same as the US, generally speaking. There were differences, of course. Many of the people I visited in Wales at that time saw me as loose American girl who would sleep with anyone, because I was traveling alone and going in pubs alone (a big no, no, in certain places in the 1980s). BUT...that is true in certain regions of the US as well. And much like the US there was a huge difference between London and well a small village in Wales, just as there's a huge difference between NYC and say, Wichita, Kansas. So it's difficult to generalize due to regional differences that exist within each country.

Turkey was interesting, very different from the European and Western sensibility in some respects. But difficult to pinpoint how exactly.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh and time was a factor - since I visited each of these places at different periods. France and Britian and Germany in the early, mid, and late 1980s. Australia in the early 1990s. And
Turkey in 2000. Time would also play a role, I think.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I think the small town-big city divide is a real one - but bear in mind that Britain is densely populated and very urban, while I get the impression the US population is much more based around small towns. London shapes British culture; New York is seen as an outlier in American culture. I couldn't imagine the furore over the Janet Jackson Superbowl nipple incident happening in Britain, for example.

Plus, Britain has become a lot more liberal since the 80s, while the impression we get of the US over here is that you've been going in the opposite direction, with the rise of the Religious Right and so forth. Though that may be a false perception?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Plus, Britain has become a lot more liberal since the 80s, while the impression we get of the US over here is that you've been going in the opposite direction, with the rise of the Religious Right and so forth. Though that may be a false perception?

Hmmm. Yes and no. Depends on who you talk to most likely.
Will state, that yes the US is more conservative in some respects, but more liberal in others. National Health Care would not have made it through Congress five-six years ago.
And same-sex marriage is making in-roads in many states that would not have permitted it previously. We've also
made progress regarding women's rights.

But. The vast majority of Americans live in rural and suburban areas and those areas tend to be more conservative. Focus is less on getting along, and more on protecting what I own from interlopers. Lots of gated communities or closed communities due to the increased "surbuban sprawl", where you only interact with co-workers, relatives, and close friends.

With the information age - we also have a prevalence of what I like to call incendiary speakers - people like Rush Lumbaugh, Glenn Beck, Hannity and Holmes, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin on the Right, and on the Left, Howard Stern, Al Franken, Keith Oblierman, Rachel Maddox. With John Stewart and Steven Colbert glibly poking fun at them. Serious journalism has for the most part fallen by the wayside, mostly we have very opinionated talking heads. So it's difficult to discern what is really happening.

But, if you look at voter records and who is voting for what, and what is being passed - also religious attendance (way down in the US, although not nearly as far down as it is in Europe, but we do have the evangelical ampitheaters with the televized preachers, day care, food courts, and self-help classes, which I don't think Europe has. Seriously - there's an ad in the paper for the Journey Church which offers sex therapy for adult couples struggling with their marriages and how to have better sex. All the while preaching Rick Warren's message about "family values" specifically "conservative" families. Statistically the religion getting the most business right now is the evangelical Christian in the US - the mall church movement - which is mostly seen in suburban areas - since it's a bit hard to do a 2,000 seater in a city.)

What's causing this? Chronic unemployment, fear of terrorism, two wars that won't end. A feeling that you can't get ahead.

What's ironic - and this is expressed in books like What's the Matter with Kansas - that the very people who are suffering the most because of the conservative slant, are voting for it - pushing for it. George W. Bush was their hero.

Why? Lack of educational opportunities mostly. Unless you have money, you are unlikely to obtain a good education. And unfortunately that applies to about 75% of the US. And by good education, I mean grammar-middle school level, not even talking about college.