Gender and Otherness

Otherness

Otherness refers to the process by which one group emphasizes the difference between it and another group, to usually show their superiority and the inferiority of the other. One of the most common usage of the otherness is in reference to race. An example of this is Robert Franks image Trolly, New Orleans, 1924 which shows racial differences. The image represents the African American people at the back of the trolly as the other, in contrast with the white people in front of them. This is mainly emphasized by the separation of both the African American and the white people. The African American people appear to be pushed to the back of the trolly where as the white people are seen as more superior by sitting at the front of the trolly.

ROBERT FRANK American, born Switzerland, 1924 Trolley, New Orleans, from the series “The Americans” 1955

The Gaze

To gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze. Jonathan Schroeder, 1998

Quote from-http://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey

The gaze refers to how we look, one person or a group looks at another with a set of preconceptions in place. This usually implies a power relationship. The main use of the gaze is commonly in the media. Male stereotypes are usually around the war hero or the cowboy and most of the time the gaze refers to the male looking at the female. There are several key forms of gaze that can be identified in photographic, film, TV or figurative graphic art.

the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person (or animal, or object) in the text;
the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the text (typically depicted in filmic and televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view shot’);
the direct [or extra-diegetic] address to the viewer: the gaze of a person (or quasi-human being) depicted in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer, with associated gestures and postures (in some genres, direct address is studiously avoided);
the look of the camera – the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people (or animals or objects) depicted; less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker or photographer.

List of gazes from-http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/gaze/gaze02.html