The Male Gaze and the You Are Beautiful Campaign

Post #1

Two of my friends are head-over-heels in love with the You Are Beautiful sticker campaign. They are a good 5 years older than I, fully assimilated into the working world, and for some reason they stick these stickers and notes everywhere to remind women that they are beautiful. One has given me pencils and stickers for such a reminder, and the other Instagrams her adventures in sticking these stickers everywhere. The whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

I scoff at the sticker campaign, but I see the fragments of the male gaze in my every day routines. After being unable to resist putting on makeup for a 10 hour car ride with my family, I realized my connection between makeup and self worth had become a bit troubling. I recently read about the idea of the male gaze, and it's been flavoring a lot of my thoughts. The concept is an old one; it's a branch of "the gaze", a lens for the analysis of visual culture. There are multiple "gazes" that deal with how the audience perceives the people on screen. These gazes are differentiated by "who is doing the watching" on screen. The male gaze assumes that males are at the top of the power food chain, and that the significance and worth of a female on-screen is given or denied by the attraction of the male gaze. This plays out in advertising, movies, etc. (ie., every chick flick ever, last year's GoDaddy.com commercials, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign).

The male gaze deals with the dispersal of power. To me, it's such a counterproductive way to affirm the worth and significance of a women. This grassroots campaign intends to redefine beauty, but it plays into the same narrative of the male gaze: a beautiful women is a worthwhile woman, simply redefine beauty and you'll be worthwhile too.These women are acutely aware that they don't like the system, but an alternative message that opposes the cultural assumption that power is gained by attracting the gaze of a man is difficult to find. I think social media has a role to play in filling this gap.

I think social media is loosening the male gaze because it diversifies "who is doing the watching" and offers a megaphone for those who wouldn't get the power to define themselves any other way. This comes with a few caveats though. As the You Are Beautiful campaign illustrates, gender roles are entrenched to the point where it even sours our activism against these definitions of worth. So while social media has given feminists a platform to successfully hold these companies accountable for their representation of women and men, these responsive companies probably won't be instant. I think the weak ties and instant accountability social media brings to commercialism are slowly weakening the strangle hold. No matter how empowered I feel after reading a particularly witty Jezebel post, it will be awhile before I stop wearing makeup.

This seems to follow the mid-line conclusion I drew between Malcolm Gladwell and Biz Stone's arguments about social activism and social media. I do think that feminism is in a stage much different than the Civil Rights movement; it's a culture war, and it's being waged on social media.