Rubin Vega on StyleLikeU

While I was busy watching youtube videos, as part of my process of procrastination, I suddenly came across a new video. It was a video of the channel StyleLikeU, one of my favourite channels I’ve been subscribed to for a long time.

The intention of this youtubechannel of this mother and daughter is to challenge existing ideas of what beauty should look like. One of the most popular segments of their channel is the ‘what’s underneath project’ in which people undress in front of the camera while telling their story.

When people are undressing in popular media, it is often seen through the male gaze. I’m interested in what the gaze of StyleLikeU looks like. I’ll do this on the basis of a video that I hadn’t watched yet, but really wanted to because an actress of the musical Rent is the person in this video.

Berger (1972) said: “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.”

In this video, in the literal sense, it’s two women looking at one woman. However, to what extent do these women hold the male gaze?

In the video, there’s a small variety of changes of angles of the camera and there’s not much use of close-ups. The position of Rubin Vega stays more or less the same. She sits on a chair while she tells the story of her dealing with racism and ageism. While she undresses I don't see anything that's particularly sexualizing her body.

The makers of the video do sometimes say when Rubin has to remove a piece of clothing. Rubin is familiar with the format of the video but still this kind of feels like taking away a piece of her agency. Rubin is the one that’s telling her story but she has to listen and undress herself when she’s told to do so.

It’s interesting to see that Rubin undresses herself while talking about her own body and the way she altered it to ‘fit in’ more.

Does Rubin Vega see herself through the male gaze? Maybe, probably, I don’t really know.

I do know that the comment section is mostly interested in her body, even though Rubin Vega told a story that was very interesting.

All in all, I think the youtubechannel StyleLikeU is worth watching.

Julie