Gaze is a term that has mainly been used in movies and videos. It refers to a steady and intent look, especially in thought, surprise, or admiration. The male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, mainly in the visual literature and art, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that present and shows women primarily as sexual instruments to give pleasure to the male viewer (Belton, 1996). Belton in his work looks at gaze in a different perspective of slavery. He gives the reason for black women in most of the movies and how they have been thought only to be meant for male sexual pleasure.

According to Hooks, the problem with Mulvey’s binary of “woman as image, man as bearer of the look” is that it mainly shows the white supremacist gaze. The cultural privilege of looking has been racially coded with the whites functioning as an invisible cultural category while the blacks are made too visible. The other problem with the binary is that it was built on a racist perspective. Black women are used since they are more visible.

Hooks, (2010) define the oppositional gaze as a grave look that examines and re-interprets the structure of the media and societal ideal. Black women have approached the media with oppositional gaze to challenge the male gaze and give a broader view of the actual of gaze or the filters that the media has given. Hooks redefines the male gaze that black women got into media to challenge and firmly pins it to the white male gaze to bring out the meaning of oppositional gaze.

Barthwell says that it matters for a black woman to be the Bachelorette since she thought that it gives a different aspect of black womanhood that most people are not accustomed to seeing. A woman being a Bachelorette would introduce the element of black women being desired and accepted as people who desire to be loved. The historical and the cultural context that comes to play here is that black women were viewed only to be sex objects and that they deserved no love. Barthwell changes the context. Deggans feel that despite Barthwell trying to show that black women need love and not seen as sex objects, the reality should be brought out of a black star in the black world and not a black star in a white world. It would sink more that way.

According to Raymond, (2003), shows featuring lesbian and gay characters do not give the positive or the negative side of these sexes, but they permit the programs to play with sexuality and sex explicitly than the same shows might have given to heterosexual characters. He would agree with the fact that the increased visibility of gay and lesbian characters in television is a sign of increased cultural tolerance since these are things that would not have happened before. These practices were seen as not being right, but the increased acceptance of lesbians and gays on televisions shows the levels of tolerance that people have on such practices.

According to the arguments of Fejes, (2003), gay and lesbian images in media are the ways to political equality and power. He argues that the groups had been marginalized before and they were considered as being a minority group. Many had not accepted the culture at this time. The increased image of lesbian and gays in the media is a sign that people have accepted the group. This has given them the opportunity to be equal to the others. Political equality and power will be achieved when all cultures are accepted.

Normcore aesthetic is trending, and there is a need to embody it. Cat Smith thought that an individual has the responsibility of embodying the normcore aesthetic. In this way, it is all about the people being nondescript and blending the aesthetic with others.