The thesis John Berger provides in his essay, "Ways of Seeing," is something along the lines of: A woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. (found in the second paragraph of the excerpt)
A point in passage that interests me heavily is when Berger exclaims how a women appears to men is of 'crucial importance for what is normally thought of as success of her life,' (pg 4). Why this strikes a spark in me is because it is not true at all. The only circumstance it is ever true is when a woman is trying to find a mate. But how does physical appearance matter to a woman's children, her friends or even just random passers-by on the street? Berger said physical appearance matters so much too because they are so self conscious? But isn't everyone a little self conscious about something? However, I completely disagree that a woman won't venture outside because her hair isn't just so or her belt isn't perfectly askew. Next menu item Berger, because I'm not buying this one.
Where Berger does come off strong in the essay is on page six in a well written series of sentences, starting with, "The mirror was often used as a symbol for of the vanity of woman. The moralizing, however, was mostly hypocritical....condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure."
This style is impressive to me because it was a perfect idea expressed so precise. The mirror is the symbol for vanity to women and as painters try to praise the glorious features that women possess by painting them in the nude. This process is supposed to rise their self-esteem up but rather the act slams it down. Well done Mr. Berger.
Definitions that were a little tricky:
emanation (pg4) - to come out from a source
envisaging (pg4) - to have a mental picture of especially in advance of realization
supine (pg6) - lying on the back or with the face upward
*all definitions according to Merriam-Webster dictionary
No comments:
Post a Comment