Reading response 4: Ways of seeing

In his article "Ways of seen," John Berger explains how women's social presence is different from the men's. He argues that men presence is based on the power he embodies. By contrasts, he says that a woman's presence shows her her attitude to herself. Berger thinks that women are constantly thinking about how they appear in front of others, specially to men, because how a woman appears to a man will determine how she will be treated.

To explain his theory, Berger refers to the European nudes where women were the principal subject. Berger explains that in average European oil painting the protagonist is the spectator who is presumed to be a man. In this paintings women's sexual passion has to be minimized so that the man who's watching it may fell that he has the monopoly os such passion.

This reading reminded me of how writers direct their work to a determined audience.  A nude has the purpose to generate a certain impression on the man who's watching it,  if a woman watched it she wouldn't get the impression the painter wanted to because she is not part of his intended audience. This would be a gap like the ones we can find in writings.

Questions for discussion and Journaling

2. I think that it hasn't change too much. Women are still used as an object to attract men. When they are posing for make-up or clothes advertising, if it those are things designed for them to wear, they wear them to look good in front of others and generate a good impression of themselves, specially in front of men.

3. I believe that the assumptions about culture are not different now. In most advertisements, men's presence show power. By contrast women's presence varies all the time depending on what she's wearing, where she's standing or whose is she with.

Applying and exploring ideas

2. I think that the relation between the author of an article or the main character and the reader is very important. I believe it's different to read a book a your favorite actor when you already know the way he thinks and what he's trying to say that when you read a book written by someone new. The same thing happens with the main character in a work of fiction. The more you know about him, the more you can get into the story and understand it.

3. I think that both women and men can be humorous. In my experience, I like making jokes and being funny just to be funny, but I'm very conscious that sometimes when I want  to cause a good impression or to get people to like me. I think the same thing happens with men.

Meta moment 

I think that painting and writing are both works of arts. Art is not art until it is seen, read and interpreted by an audience. Writers, like painters want to share a message with  their audience.