Does Mass Media Contribute to White Male Rage?
What does a White man see when he watches a movie? Most likely a reality very similar to his own. In an industry dominated by White men, nearly everything that we see is through the White male gaze. Which is why when they see something through another’s point of view, such as a Black woman’s gaze, they tend to dislike it, give it negative reviews, dismiss it as an unrealistic portrayal of life. And it is unrealistic, to them.
In this country, the White male lives in a society tailor made for him. Being so privileged, they simply cannot understand movies or TV shows through another’s gaze because they are not used to witnessing something that does not conform to what they think society should look like. They have never had to worry about being oppressed, so how can they even begin to imagine what it is like to be a member of a marginalized community. They can’t, at least not what it actually feels like, though many do go to great lengths to feel as if they face oppression as well.This is where the term “White male rage” comes in.
This past summer I was at a street festival with a friend when a co-worker of hers came over and we decided to all get dinner together. It came up in the conversation that he wanted to attend Georgetown for law school.
“Hard school to get into,” I said.
“Yeah, especially since I’m white.”
“They let in minorities to make themselves look good,” he continued. “Turn away White students who are better because they want diversity.”
It was in this moment, that something became clear to me. White men think they are entitled to things because they always have been. This is why they don’t want equality, it’s more people to compete with. And the problem with equality, like a scale, when one side comes up, the other has to come down. But that does not make White men oppressed! It just brings them down to a level that is still higher than what most of us are at now. And brings everyone else up to that same level.
But many White men don’t see it like that. They see it as their rights being taken away. And when that happens they rage.
And then they face little or no consequences and go on to hold the highest positions in our country. Unlike the rest of us, rage is an emotion that White men are allowed to experience in public, whereas the rest of us must get angry behind closed doors or we will be labeled as hysterical (for women) or violent (for Black people).
This brings me back to my point from the beginning of the post. White men see themselves as deserving of many things in this country. Maybe some of them are, maybe they aren’t. Nonetheless, this idea is reinforced through movies and television shows, the majority of which, show the world through the White male gaze. Woman and people of color are there to help them along on their journey, never on journey’s of their own. So when a movie is made through a different gaze, many White male critics just cannot understand a world where they are not the primary focus. Just as White men cannot understand a world where they are on the same level as everyone else.
-this post is based on my 2nd thought paper for AFS 363
