Berger Reading Response

Pre-Reading Exercise

            This was easy. There are so many examples to choose from, but I’m choosing an image that is most recent to me. Compare British GQ’s 2012 Woman of the Year to their Men of the Year. Notice a difference? Unbelievable. GQ is one of the worst.

Summary

            In Ways of Seeing, John Berger looks to nude artwork to demonstrate how women are objectified and made to be surveyed- to be looked at-, while men are the surveyors- the voyeurs. Berger distinguishes between nakedness and nudity: “To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself” (Berger 211). Female nudes are for men’s sexuality and an exploitation of women’s.

            There are definite similarities between Berger’s piece and McCloud’s. The way in which Berger talks about the need for the demystification of the other, to make things banal, recalls both McCloud’s concept of “amplification through simplification” and the idea that cartoons represent universality: both are meant to ground the reader/viewer in reality. Moreover, Berger presents to his readers the idea of women and their sexuality as abstractions.

QD

2. Jean Kilbourne’s “Killing Us Softly” series does an excellent job of representing how women are presented in popular culture and advertisements. The objectification and exploitation is always incredibly unsettling, even when you know by now that it happens. One of the most upsetting aspects about the exploitation of women is that it is mostly men who reproduce and perpetuate these constructs and images of women. Then, women feel they must display their sexualities in order to be accepted (like when Berger says “Those who are not judged beautiful are not beautiful” (Berger 210)). Images of posed women are also all over music videos, in all genres: rock, rap, country, pop, etc. There is a documentary called Dreamworld about women in music videos that unsettled me for days after I watched it. I think things have gotten worse since Berger wrote this piece as there are so many different mediums for women to be exploited now.

3. I think these assumptions still abound. I certainly agree that sexism hurts both men and women, and men face enormous pressure to be powerful and successful. But there is certainly a difference in the expectations that men and women face. A woman’s presence is entirely determined by her appearance, while men can convey power in different ways.

AE

1. This is such an interesting question. I think this question would be answered differently in Berger’s time than it would today, because now, even men face enormous pressure to conform to appearance ideals. I can think of Playgirl or images of athletes shirtless that might speak to this phenomenon affecting men as well. However, it’s important to note that although these men are objectified, they also still have the presence of power, of agency, which I think is always absent from images of women. It’s also interesting that women can appear naked on film, but full frontal images of men are x-rated; our society does not treat men’s bodies the same as women’s. If it’s men being objectified, it usually exists as humor.

3. This question makes me think of supermodels who seem to always be in submissive poses. They are curled up or hugging themselves, trying to makes themselves as small as possible. This pose is greatly contrasted when there is also a man in the image, who is always overbearing, aggressive, present, etc. I cannot recall an image in which the man is posed as anything other than powerful, let alone passive.

Final Thoughts

            I really liked Berger’s piece, although it did take me a few read-throughs to fully appreciate. Sometimes these articles about the objectification of women seem like old hat and futile because nothing ever changes, but Berger has some new concepts. I liked the connection to McCloud and the idea of women as abstractions and the need to demystify the other to ground viewers in reality. I also found the exercises that asked us to find specific images interesting, because I’ve looked for these types of images before, and every time I return, there are always more unsettling images to use. I think Magic Mike is interesting, and I haven’t seen the film, but I would be surprised if these men weren’t depicted as somehow powerful and in charge, in addition to it being a joke that men are strippers.