From a MOA: Male Gaze

A friend of mine… Who am I a kidding. Another MOA brought up the subject of female gaze in Kpop. A loaded topic to be certain. I brought it up to my best friend, and their insight was eons of depth beyond what the initial subject was meant to be. It questioned the essence of intention of female gaze. To them, female gaze is a term that undermines the significance of the term male gaze. To them, male gaze was coined to describe the long, long history of male gaze being forced upon the majority of the world by patriarchy. The lighthearted usage of female gaze implies that gaze can be both male and female and has existed all along, when the development of female gaze and female gaze oriented media has long been suppressed by male gaze media. “Stuffed down our throats” they said.

To me, male and female gaze rang merely as aesthetics. But in reality they’re right. Poor shallow attempts at female gaze and still male dominated spaces means that the intent of  the so-called female gaze is often not created by those who are in radical support of women. Perhaps that intention cannot and should not coincide with genuine female gaze.