Ways Of Seeing John Berger Summary Chapter 3

First in Chapter 3 of Ways of Seeing, the social presence of men and women are spoken about. John Berger expresses that men and women have different types of social presence. Men are measured by the level of power they offer in different forms, such as economic, physical, and moral. A man's own presence suggests that an individual may or may not be able to do for you as individual yourself because it may be fabricated. Although, a woman’s presence may indicate what can or cannot be done to her due to her daily activity contributing to her own presence. Berger then states, a woman’s own sense of being is replaced by the constant sense of being appreciated mostly by men and therefore turning herself into an object. Additionally, Berger further
The shame was then directed more at the viewer instead of each other and it gradually became a kind of display to others that resulted into a man viewing her as naked. Further in the chapter, Berger then develops a distinction such as “To be naked is to be oneself…. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.” In which it explains the point with the Allegory of Time and Love. Based off the picture, Cupid is kissing Venus, however the way their bodies are positioned has nothing to do with them kissing it has to do the way it is positioned to a male viewer. Therefore, making the picture appeal more to a males sexuality than a female. Lastly, it is then stated that “hair is associated with sexual power, and with passion.” That a womens sexual passion must be minimized so that the “spectator” can feel as if he has the monopoly towards such passion and that women are only here to feed an appetite. Those words just makes me realize that degrading women with words and physical action has been a thing for years and it is continuing today with each new generation. I believe this chapter was remarkably interesting and it made me self aware on how things are seeing differently and have different meanings depending what gender you are. It seems as if women are used to serve and comfort a man throughout eternity and hopefully that changes as the years go