Oppositional Gaze Film Analysis

In the Oppositional Gaze, Belle Hooks describes the process of identification as the subject (the woman) being replaced by another (someone in the film) that breaches the separation between the two, and in doing so, replicates the same structure of patriarchy (hooke, 124). Hooks describes that the existence of black women in a culture of white supremacy causes complexity and issues in regard to female identification. Due to poor representation of African American women in film, issues of identification can arise. One of this issues is explained in a scenario regarding a woman named Miss Pauline. Miss Pauline is a black woman who goes to the theater, watches a film (which is made for white people) and gets pleasure from it. This scenario

In the case of Miss Pauline, the poor black woman, who was a servant to a white family, gazes at the white women being treated so well in the films she watches and "becomes one of them". Many other black female spectators try to resist identification with the white women, to have the oppositional gaze, but Miss Pauline does not do this. She instead completely forgets who she is and how she was treated as loses herself to become another woman that is portrayed in the film. Miss Pauline does not feel like the poor black woman anymore, she feels the power of being a strong white woman, who is beautiful, praised, and an object of phallocentric gaze. This is the "pleasure" Miss Pauline feels when watching cinema. When she exits the theater, however, the reality starts to hit her. As the film ends and she goes home, she can no longer identify as the white woman on the screen. Miss Pauline identifies as herself again, which, to start with is negative because of the discrimination towards African Americans at the time. This process of identification leaves her depressed because the feeling of pleasure from identifying as a happy white woman is short