Beyond the Gaze: Media Awareness for Media Inclusivity (For Educational Purposes)
Beyond the Gaze is a non-commercial short film intended for educational purposes that was made at the University of Giessen, Germany in 2023. The film engages with meanings of “the gaze” in order to open people up to thinking about how we interact with popular media. Originally, Laura Mulvey used the concept of “the male gaze” (1975) to describe film techniques that turn women into objects without subjective points of view, and to think about the profound pleasure people take in looking at films and seeing as the camera does. Since then, the term “the gaze” has come to denote White, colonialist, cis-hetero-patriarchal, and ableist ways of seeing and thinking that are transported by film, television, and other media. By revisiting different conceptualizations of “the gaze,” the film aims to promote a deeper understanding of power dynamics and media narratives that shape society.
Beyond the Gaze quotes insights by scholars such as Frantz Fanon, Toni Morrison, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, and Laura Mulvey on how to recognize and resist prejudiced ways of seeing. The film then introduces methods for addressing discrimination in media on the levels of representation, production, and reception. By taking viewers behind the camera, Beyond the Gaze demonstrates how to use reverse engineering to understand how camera work and sound combine to shape media experience. The film describes existing tests for measuring diversity and inclusion. These tests include the Bechdel-Wallace test (1985) to see if a film or television show recognizes women as actual people; the DuVernay test (2016) to see if a film portrays Black, Indigenous, and People of Color as individuals with complex experiences; the Vito Russo test (2019) to measure whether LGBTQIA persons are depicted in ways that go beyond sexual orientation and gender status; and the Riz test (2018) to see if Muslims are presented as individuals rather than as negative stereotypes.
In front of the camera, interviewees reflect on when they first noticed the gaze and how the gaze has affected them personally. They discuss their techniques for enjoying media, when possible, while remaining critically vigilant about how media can make existing social hierarchies appear natural and ‘good.’ The filmmakers and actors imagine what media could be and what we can make it be – a garden in which everyone finds a place for themself.
The film team would like to thank the Justus Liebig University of Giessen for generous financial support of the film.
Texts quoted in the film
Bechdel, Alison (1985). “The Rule.” Dykes to Watch Out For: Great Romances That Never Happened. Atlanta: Firebrand Publishing.
Fanon, Frantz (1967 [1952]). Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press.
Hall , Stuart (2001 [1980]). “Encoding/Decoding.” Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. Ed. Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas Kellner. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing.
hooks, bell (1999 [1992]). “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.” Feminist Film Theory: A Reader. Ed. Sue Thornham. New York: New York University Press, 307-19.
Massie, Victoria (2016). “Want to measure a film’s diversity? Try ’the DuVernay test.’” Vox.com, Vox Media, 1 Feb. 2016. <Want to measure a film’s diversity? Try “the DuVernay test.“ – Vox>
Mulvey, Laura (1975). “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16. 3: 6–18.
NPR (2021). “Ava DuVernay On Array Crew, A Database To Diversify Hollywood Production Personnel.” Npr.com, Culture, 18 Feb. 2021. <Ava DuVernay On Array Crew, A Database To Diversify Hollywood Production Personnel : NPR.>
Olson, Greta (2022). From Law and Literature to Legality and Affect. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rose, Charlie (1998). “Toni Morrison.” Charlierose.com, Interview with Toni Morrison, n.d. <Toni Morrison — Charlie Rose>
“The Riz Test” (2018). Riztest.com, The Riz Test, n.d. <The Riz Test>
“The Vito Russo Test (2019)” (2019). Glaad.org, 2019 Studio Responsibility Index, n.d. <The Vito Russo Test (2019) – GLAAD>
Suggestions for further reading
“Array Crew” (2021). ArrayCrew. Array Crew, n.d. <ARRAY CREW — Build Entertainment Careers>
BrainwashedMovie, LLC (2021). “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power.” Brainwashedmovie.com, Home, n.d. <Brainwashed Movie | A Bold New Feature Documentary>
“Brainwashed Trailer” (2023). YouTube. Uploaded by FrenchInstituteUK, 1 May 2023. <Brainwashed Trailer – YouTube>
Bordwell, David (2005). Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dodd, Savanah, and Andrew Jackson (2019). “‘Good’ Photographs: The White Male Gaze and How We Privilege Ways of Seeing.” Witness, World Press Photo Foundation, 11 May 2019. <“Good” photographs: The white male gaze and how we privilege ways of seeing – Photography Ethics Centre (photoethics.org)>
– – – (2020). “The Impact of the White, Male Gaze.” Trigger, Impact, 3 Jun. 2020. <FOMU | Trigger magazine | The Impact of the White, Male Gaze>
Evans, Caroline, and Lorraine Gamman (1995). “The Gaze Revisited, or Reviewing Queer Viewing.” A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men, and Popular Culture. Ed. Paul Burston and Colin Richardson. London, New York: Routledge, 13-56.
Forster, Stefani (2018). “Yes, There’s Such a Thing as a ‘Female Gaze.’ But It’s Not What You Think.” Medium, A Medium Corporation, 12 Jun. 2018. <https://medium.com/truly-social/yes-theres-such-a-thing-as-a-female-gaze-but-it-s-not-what-you-think-d27be6fc2fed>
Fries, Kenny (2017). “The Fries Test: On Disability Representation in Our Culture.” Medium, A Medium Corporation, 1 Nov. 2017. <The Fries Test: On Disability Representation in Our Culture | by Kenny Fries | Medium>
Kellner, Douglas (2009). “Toward a Critical/Media Cultural Studies,” Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches. Ed. Rhonda Hammer and Douglas Kellner. New York, Washington: Peter Lang. 5–24.
Shukla, Nikesh (2013). “After the Bechdel Test, I propose the Shukla Test for race in film.” Newstatesman.com, New Statesman, 18 Oct. 2013. <After the Bechdel Test, I propose the Shukla Test for race in film (newstatesman.com)>
Greta Olson 