bell hooks' "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectatorship"

In this episode, I present bell hooks' essay "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectatorship."
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[@MorroTreece]

I appreciate this more approachable explanation, I feel like there's a level of gatekeeping from the average person with the over use of jargon and terminology that scares people away from these subjects and just prevents an awareness to these issues because of it.

[@sithembilengccobo]

great video, Art history student here, from South Africa!!!!!

[@user-se6rw9gs4q]

Hello David, I'm from Turkey as well. I really love your videos and the content you make. With your help I have gotten more into philosophy, it has helped me understand many concepts and ideas. I think that you would love visiting Istanbul. There are a lot of historical artifacts, museums, beautiful sites and great food.

[@stepmaster9988]

Canadian here and even though it’s a week before Christmas I am so grateful for this early seasonal gift I meant to bookmark two or three other videos because I like this one so much and clearly I’m ready to feast instead on about 100 of your wonderful videos and snapshots of some of our greatest thinkers that you have here. Secondly thank you for the summary of the oppositional gaze, one of the 1700 pages I have open on my iPad that I somehow will get around to reading over the holidays. Going back to search your inventory for Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Subscribed and excited!

[@ozanozdinc9197]

Hello david, i am from turkey. You should totally visit istanbul because we have some really cool sights with historical importance and our economy is in the brink of collapse. Please give us a visit david

[@stnicgglemploy2794]

God bless Turkey. Thanks for inventing Greek food for them.

[@ozanozdinc9197]

@@stnicgglemploy2794 np fam

[@deliacadman]

😭

[@IELTS7plusAcademy]

Hi David. I am a student of Communications at the University of Calgary. Your videos has made Theories so much easier and fun to study! Thank you!

[@inescolyseizere]

Hi David, I discovered your channel some days ago and I wanted to thank you for your content. It's helping me to write my thesis on black women stereotypes in hollywood cinema. Soo, thanks again. By the way I am studying in France but I am from Burundi, you say you want suggestions of places to visit and I think it's a good one! ;)

[@mikalao6533]

I’m from Connecticut but I think you should visit Acadia National Park in Maine

[@kopanokholopane6340]

Hey! Im from South Africa, I really enjoyed this review it really helped me with my comparative film analysis thesis. I understand hooks' essay even better thanks to you. Also, my country is gorgeous in so many ways: tons of histroical sites, amazing food, beautiful beaches, cultural sites, natural formations and much more. You should come visit 😀

[@DilanazGüler]

Hi! I’m from Turkey as well- (and i’ve been absolutely loving your content for the past few months, thank you!!). Turkey has incredible archeological sites if you have any interest in ancient history, and since it acted as a bridge between various cultures for so long, you can see traces (and a mishmash) of european nd middle eastern customs at the same time :D Though we’re not really big on human rights nowadays- evaluate accordingly lmao🫠

[@poetrysessionswithkamo3374]

hey, this is my first time here. I'm from CPT south africa.

[@Zing_art]

Roxanne Gay also gives a very good critique of some seminal Hollywood films centring black people in her book Bad Feminist.

[@analicollari2108]

How enthralling! I am really interested in the idea of a gaze in and of itself being threatening. When Hooks mentions criticizing media and not just blindly accepting it (which of course is not to blame those who watch media just for enjoyment), it seems the reflection adds opposition whereas when she mentions seeing a police officer and making eye contact, the eye contact is intrinsically oppositional. When young children stare at police officers, they are utterly helpless in changing the way the officer interacts with the world, if they even are thinking about it in the first place. I suppose my question is what makes a gaze oppositional de facto of itself, without any further action? When racists people are stared at by the race they cruelly despise, what prompts the feeling of discomfort? Perhaps unrelated to what Hooks was discussing, I think in the case of an authority figure and non authority figure, it is not the being stared at that irks them but rather the staring. When someone looks you in the eyes, they expect the same in return or else tacitly claim that they are worthy of a certain level of respect, that they are equals in some regard. Perhaps then it is the element of reciprocity that makes even a gaze without criticism or questioning oppositional. P.S: Honestly, I have no idea if what I wrote is nonsensical. I kind of just left the comment so that I can ramble and not accidently delete my thoughts haha

[@Heyu7her3]

Your "perhaps..." is essentially what she describes throughout the essay. She begins with a juxtaposition of the "oppositional gaze" exercised by a Black child towards their parent. The challenging of norms (the terms of engagement around authority figures) is present as well and so she interrogates the different gazes that Black people employ -- particularly women. All a Black person has to do is look, and that act is negated.

[@Impaled_Onion-thatsmine]

That all depends, if you're staring at random people, random people are talking about you, contextualizing your life which is taken as a genuine threat - but a police officer is trained to not look at people, unless called upon to respond and resolve it accordingly; read this instead.

[@davidlatimoreii3963]

Hi David! I’m also David lol but from Chicago. This was my first time watching a video of yours, this was super interesting to learn about and easy to digest, you also make excellent hand gestures lmao pull up to The Windy City anytime after May 1, the city turns into a super vibrant and lively intersection of a bunch of different cultures and types of people in a city that’s clean and not too overwhelming

[@roryward8796]

I just listened to this in Spotify. I have one question how does the correlation of franz fanon idea of spectating being an attack and bell hooks oppositional gaze link? Sorry if it’s a stupid question 😅

[@voralom494]

Im from Russia... there is no way to visit it right now. My serbian friend was planning to visit me last year, so now everything is screwed.

[@ComradeDt]

Sont worry brother i will sneak in

[@FungalNetwork]

Summary begins at 2:00

[@ericcheng5516]

Hi, I am from Taiwan! I think Taiwan is quite an interesting place because its unique tolerance, openness and civil society comparing to other east asian societies like Japan, Korea and China. Really appreciate your work!

[@michaelgelunas1113]

Taiwan is a country.

[@camipco]

I think it's important to include some of the fascinating possibilities of an oppositional gaze hooks discusses that don't require creating new media. All of these are limited in various ways, but they are to some degree oppositional and are available even to those without power and access to create their own media. The first she discusses is just the power to refuse to identify, to look at the negative representation of a black woman in film and say "that's not like me", to look critically, naming the racism and sexism on display, or indeed to refuse to look at all (pg 121). The second is to seek out media which challenges the dominant narrative, including white-made and centered films which challenge white supremacy (pg 127). I think there's a third possibility she doesn't address in this essay, but does in some of her other work, which is the audience re-reading the film to challenge the dominant readings. So black women might watch Gone With the Wind and imagine what Mammy is really thinking about Scarlett, or how she might talk behind her back. They might among themselves create their own narratives, inner worlds, and backgrounds for misrepresented black women characters. This can also extend to fandom, where there's a significant presence of marginalized folks in fan fic re-writing existing media from the perspective of an oppositional gaze. So yes, making new better films that center and provide good representation of black women is a crucial part of the oppositional gaze, but to my reading, hooks isn't limiting the possibilities of the oppositional gaze to that.

[@michaelgelunas1113]

Visit Binghamton NY it's the armpit of NYS! We have our own unique culinary delight available nowhere else called Speidies, marinated grilled meat served on Italian bread & we were once the frontier of the New World. P.s. I don't think a person should be looking to media, especially visual media, for representation, validation or idols.

[@MegaVal20]

Hello, I'm from India. I studied Maulway during my Film Studies Masters class. I enjoyed your explanation of Hooks.

[@L91-r5b]

Hi David, I am from Iraqi Kurdistan and love your videos as someone who has majored in English Literature and Race Studies.

[@mpoemp4703]

7:45 INSERT THE TV SHOW ** The WIRE**🤔🤔🤔

[@sadafbiglari6746]

Many thanks! 🌻🧡

[@candyvore10]

I'm from Nairobi

[@Megaghost_]

Hi! I'm from Argentina. If you love nature & hiking in national parks you could visit the Patagonia. The north is nice too, places like Salta for example. Also, coming here with a strong foreign currency can make the trip relatively cheap for you (our coin is devalued as hell) . ;)

[@stnicgglemploy2794]

wow so interesting

[@tunateun]

I'm from Amsterdam. Can definitely recommend visiting. It's a city with a lot of history and there's always been a huge amount of cutural activity. Art, architecture, music, philosophy, literature etc. There's a notorious section in the center that's very tourist-heavy and focused on weed/sex work, but honestly it's only a few streets. Also the city is extremely walkable/bikeable which makes it great for aimless roaming around. Let me know if you ever plan to visit!

[@emiliaerle6030]

Hello David, I'm from Poland, which you should visit because of me :)

[@djx_5430]

White men, save America. Desire black women.