Donna Summer and the White European Male Gaze by Jaap Kooijman
Jaap Kooijman’s video essay Donna Summer and the White European Male Gaze reassess a TV show he watched when he was young. A show that featured Donna Summer during her years in Germany in the 1970s.
“…through her playful performance, she exposes rather than reinforces the tradition of the white European male gaze.”
This audiovisual essay looks at three performances by the Black American female singer Donna Summer on Dutch television in the early 1970s to explore how she is captured by the white European male gaze, exemplified by the show’s host Sjef van Oekel, a fictional character played by comedian Dolf Brouwers.