Hook article
Hook's article, "The Oppositional Gaze" is mainly about how black women are portrayed in movies. The "oppositional gaze" was the way black women in movies were looked at by white males or white females. The main arguments of this text fight for an African American woman's right to be portrayed differently in cinema, to have her own "gaze" which excludes horny white males or snobby white females. In the article, Hook tells a story of a black woman who would go to the movies by herself, just so she could get lost in the story. Watching the movie was an escape to this woman; she would picture herself as one of the main women in the movie. Many black women opposed this oppositional gaze because it was racist as well as sexist. Eventually, black women were given better roles in cinema, such as Halle Berry's "Monster's Ball" or the leading lady in "Swordfish," and this oppositional gaze faded into the back-streams of cinema.