Blog 9: Practices of Looking

In Practices of Looking, it mentions that the "term gaze is when we glance at an image with affection, awe, wonder or fascination" yet do people ever realize that we do that all the time? It is an unconscious action since we fail to notice that T.V. advertisements aim to gain our attention by making the audience feel inferior to what they do not have. Think about that one commercial of a there are two teen boys dressed as mascots as chicks and in the middle of work, a group of teenage girls confronts them and asks them if they wanted to go out after work. One of the boys is depressed because he has a major pimple on his lower cheek and does not want to embarrass himself in front of the ladies. His expression sounds like it is the end of the world as he asks "What should I do?" His friend recommends an acne cream which will relieve the pimple in a matter of 6-8 hours and before you know it, it will be gone in time before the girls come back. By the end of the day, the group of girls come back as the boy takes off the mascot head with a pimpleless face smiling. One of the girls hugs him and makes a remark on "let's pick up this chick". By watching this commercial, what do you think the audience will think? I thought that by having one pimple no matter what part of my face, I thought "Am I ugly? What will people think of me if I have it? Will they look disgusted and think I do not take care of myself?" I'm very self-conscience of how people see me as and I try to pretend like it is no big deal when in the end, it is. Let alone, my brother, who is in a worst situation I am in has more acne than me, yet he is not so affected at all. What is the big deal? Is it because he is already accepted in the community that he has so much confidence? Or is it just because I take things so seriously? Commercials, ads, and news today influence the community by trying to make everyone "gaze" at whatever product or whatever action they want to be done