Coding in whiteface was the last thing I expected to do when I came to MIT, but—for better or for worse—I had encountered what I now call the “coded gaze.” You may have heard of the male gaze, a concept developed by media scholars to describe how, in a patriarchal society, art, media, and other forms of representation are created with a male viewer in mind. The male gaze decides which subjects are desirable and worthy of attention, and it determines how they are to be judged. You may also be familiar with the white gaze, which similarly privileges the representation and stories of white
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