In her 1992 e-book Black Appears to be like: Race and Illustration, cultural theorist Bell Hooks launched the idea of the “oppositional gaze.” This concept highlights how Black girls resist the dominant, typically patriarchal, and white-centric visible narratives imposed by media. By critically partaking with photos that marginalise or objectify them, Black girls reclaim their representations and company. In Nollywood, the oppositional gaze presents a lens to look at how African girls are portrayed, typically inside male-dominated tales, and the way they resist or conform to those narratives.
Nollywood has achieved outstanding strides in African storytelling, however like many world movie industries, it stays entrenched in patriarchal norms. Male characters often dominate the narratives, whereas girls are sometimes relegated to secondary roles, embodying stereotypical gender norms. Girls in Nollywood movies are typically depicted as dutiful wives, obedient daughters, or exhausted moms, reinforcing the concept that a lady’s price lies in her means to look after others. Alternatively, they’re portrayed as both objects of need or sinister characters, perpetuating the trope of ladies as both virtuous or harmful seductresses.
Such restricted depictions forestall girls from being seen as multi-dimensional people with their desires, flaws, and needs. Nevertheless, some movies like Blood Sisters; 2022, mark a shift in feminine illustration, much like how Thelma and Louise;1991, redefined girls in American cinema. Nonetheless, the danger stays that Nollywood will proceed reinforcing damaging stereotypes, limiting the roles girls can play each on and off the display.
The oppositional gaze gives a framework for resisting these conventional portrayals. By consciously recognising how Nollywood movies restrict girls’s roles, feminine filmmakers, actors, and viewers can start to problem these representations. Movies like Lionheart; 2018, directed by Genevieve Nnaji, exemplify this oppositional perspective. The movie defies typical portrayals by that includes a powerful feminine protagonist who takes cost of her household’s enterprise in a male-dominated world. Equally, Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys; 2018, showcases Eniola Salami, a fancy and morally ambiguous character, breaking free from the one-dimensional stereotypes that usually outline girls in Nollywood.
These movies symbolize a rising motion throughout the trade, the place girls are reclaiming their tales and resisting patriarchal norms. By embracing the oppositional gaze, feminine filmmakers can create richer, extra nuanced portrayals of ladies, pushing in opposition to the restricted roles which have lengthy outlined them.
Bell Hooks argued that Black girls can actively critique and resist dominant portrayals via the oppositional gaze, rejecting narratives thrust upon them by a patriarchal media. In Nollywood, feminine viewers can equally demand extra layered, numerous depictions of ladies, particularly in a tradition the place movies closely affect societal views on gender. Supporting movies that supply extra inclusive and empowering narratives for girls encourages the trade to evolve.
Whereas there’s a seen shift towards higher feminine illustration in Nollywood, a lot work stays. The oppositional gaze continues to be a important device in difficult the patriarchal tales that persist within the trade. As Nollywood positive aspects worldwide recognition, the way it portrays African girls can have a worldwide impression. In distinction to Western misrepresentations—reminiscent of seen within the Luxembourgian collection Capitani—Nollywood has the facility to inform tales with authenticity, complexity, and dignity.
In conclusion, the oppositional gaze permits girls in Nollywood, each in entrance of and behind the digicam, to problem, resist, and redefine their portrayals. Because the trade continues to develop, this gaze can be important in making certain that girls’s tales are advised, their voices heard, and their portrayals as numerous and multi-faceted as the ladies themselves.
Doyin Adigun is a Graduate Instructing Assistant at Purdue College, Indiana, USA.
