Male and female gazes when looking at people of the same gender

One of the things that really interests me in relation to the 'male gaze' and the 'female gaze' is what happens when this gaze is turned towards people of the same gender as the 'looker'.

In Ways of Seeing, John Berger explains what the difference between the 'male gaze' and the 'female gaze' is according to him, and he does so in terms of opposition. He says: 'men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at'. This paints a picture of the male gaze being the way men look at women, while women just pay attention to the male gaze and the way men look at them. What happens, then, when we look at a context that is not as heteronormative as the one John Berger supposes? What happens when men look at men, or when women look at women?

An interesting variation on the gazes Berger describes can be found in the music video voor Hayley Kiyoko's song Girls Like Girls:

https://youtu.be/I0MT8SwNa_U

(Unfortunately, due to copyright issues, it is not possible to embed the music video in this blog post. Please click the link above to see the video.)

In the video, the spectator often looks at the dark-haired girl through the point of view of the lighter-haired girl (e.g. 0:36 - 0:44). Furthermore, we often see the lighter-haired girl staring at the dark-haired girl and passively looking at her (1:09 - 1:36), while the dark-haired girl sometimes even literally puts on a show and displays herself (1:16 - 1:36).

It seems, therefore, that in this clip, the lighter-haired girl has taken up the 'male gaze' as described by Berger, while the other girl acts as the women described in Ways of Seeing - she appears and watches herself being looked at. The interesting thing about this is that it seems that the heteronormative distinction Berger makes can be recognized between these two girls as well, although it gets turned around from time to time as well (e.g. 2:12 - 2:20, where the dark-haired girl is staring at the other girl, or 2:21 - 2:28, where the girls are staring at each other)