The Gendered Gaze on Social Media: the Female Gaze as Rebellion

Abstract

The male gaze, according to Laura Mulvey, means a way to objectify and sexualize women from heterosexual male perspectives. The male gaze can be found in every woman's daily life and has extended to social media. Thus, a specific type of female gaze emerges on social media in order to resist the male gaze. This type of female gaze aims at judging men's appearance, figure, education level or social position aggressively, differing from the female gaze in its usual context. Most studies of the gendered gaze lie in the field of film, literature and art, so in order to fill the gap, this study tries to analyse the gendered gaze in the field of social media. Two cases are raised in this study, 1saye bikini gate and Rayza airport gate, and the comments concerning the gendered gaze are gathered. Using textual analysis as a method, this study analyses the different characteristics of the male gaze and the aggressive female gaze on social media. According to the characteristics, this study focuses on whether the aggressive female gaze on social media can launch a rebellion against the male gaze on social media. Because of the nature and the purpose of the aggressive female gaze on social media, this study regards it as impossible for this type of female gaze to truly become a solution and a rebellion.