The Ways of seeing chapter begins by explaining the difference between a man and a woman in terms of their presence. It says a man’s presence depends on power embodiments like moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social, and sexual. When this power is strong, the man is striking and when it is small, he has little presence. On the other hand, a woman’s presence, which is illustrated by gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, selected surroundings, and taste, is a reflection of herself. A woman’s presence is inherently the person men tend to think about them.
The chapter additionally explain that women live in confined spaces, so they develop under limited spaces, making them watch themselves repeatedly. So they are continually accompanied by their images. From childhood, women learn to see themselves, with two minds of observer and observed. They have to examine everything about them and everything they do since men, view and appreciate the success of women’s lives that way. Thus, the observer part of the women treats the observed part of them to create an impression of how they would like to be treated.
Another insight from the chapter is that men like looking at women while women like watching over themselves being looked at by men. It says this is a key aspect determining the relationship between men and women, as well as women themselves. The assessor in women is male, and the assessor is female, so these two turn the woman into an object of vision. Meaning, women are clear in their minds that spectators always look at them. Besides, women also do look at themselves from the perspective of spectators.
The chapter then looks at paintings of women’s nakedness and how it relates to the observer and the observed. The author then give the definition that – to be naked is simply to be without clothes, while a nude is a way of seeing what the painting achieves. Meaning to be naked is being yourself, but nudity is how you are seen by others in their imaginations. In paintings of naked women, their bodies must be seen by the spectators as objects on display for such paintings to be nudes. The proponent of nude paintings is the spectator in front of the picture and mostly, presumed to be a man because it is for him that naked figures have assumed nudity.
For this reason, the women are not painted with hair on the body, hair is linked to sexual power and passion attributes of men’s presence. So, women’s sexuality is minimized in painting for the spectators to feel they have monopoly power and passion. Moreover, the facial expressions of women figures in nudes are such that, they charm the men whom they imagine are looking at them, although they don’t know them.
The chapter closes by saying painting of nudes’ portrays women’s submission to the spectators, who are mostly men while women are treated as objects. The bodies of women figures are arranged to appeal to spectators’ sexuality, but not the sexuality of the woman. It says, the culture is deeply rooted and still structures the consciousness of many women that they examine themselves, to their femininity as men do.
Reference
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing (pp. 45-64). British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books Ltd.