Looking, not just being looked at

In one of the texts we read during this course, a text by John Berger, there’s a passage that says:

“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.”

While I agree that this is the case a lot of the time, especially when we look at movies or TV shows, I do believe that there are certain exceptions to this rule. The example that I chose for this blogpost occurred in an episode of the TV show Teen Wolf. In this episode one of the main characters, Lydia, has recently become single because her boyfriend left the country. Her way to get over the breakup was quite modern, and not one that is usually shown in a lot of forms of media: she had sex with an impressive amount of men during quite a short time.

Halfway through the episode you see her standing in the hallway with her best friend when the doors into the school open and a group of young men walk in. These men are supposed to be freshmen, so boys that are about 14 to 15 years old. But, like most TV shows and movies that portray teenagers, the actors themselves are mostly older than 20 and ridiculously ripped. Lydia appears to be quite happy about the ‘fresh meat’ that enters the building, and gives them a long (objectifying) look. While this look occurs, she does make sure that she looks good herself, but she’s mostly focused on picking out the guys she’s going to pursue. 

Lydia on the left with her best friend on the right, ogling the freshmen

The fact that Lydia is a woman and that she is looking goes against Bergers idea that women don’t just look at men. This might be because this is quite a modern show and the way they portrayed a young woman in this show is vastly different from the way they portrayed young women in shows and movies around the time Berger made these statements, which is in the seventies. I am positive that this is an improvement, as it breaks women out of their passive role of only being looked at and never looking themselves.