john berger: ways of seeing

it was a refreshing sight to see a man in the mid-1900's discussing women's issues in such a respectful way; a lot of what john berger mentioned in his second episode of ways of seeing left me enlightened. i never particularly noticed the pattern of women's gazes in paintings, leaving me unaware of what it meant. having women stare not at any subject in the painting, but staring directly at the viewer instead, only dehumanizes women more. it depicts them as consistently being sexually tempted. they can't even focus on the men surrounding them. this notion perverts women's sexuality to such great lengths especially considering the perception of more sexually active and sexually confident women in society. after depicting women in only such a revealing and prized way, society dares to then shame us for doing anything remotely similar. berger's interview of various women only solidified this shared disgust amongst women; we know what you are doing and we feel incredibly disadvantaged and suppressed because of it. in this sense, although berger never said much more than asking topic questions, i wish berger kept out of the conversation fully and just let the women speak as they wanted to speak without any male presence around them.

the male presence has affected us enough.