In episode 2 of “ The Ways of Seeing,” Berger talks about the difference between being naked and being nude. To be naked is to be one’s true self and to be nude is to be on display. The use of nudity in European art has brought on the idea that women must submit and please men. In many of the examples Berger gave in the second episode of “The Ways of Seeing,” he shows how the positioning an artist chose for the subject is used in pleasing the often male spectator. One example Berger shows is the 1814 painting by, Jean-Aguste-Dominique-Ingres, “La Grande Odalisque.” The face is in the direction towards the viewer and the gaze is meant to charm them. More often than not, this positioning and body language are used to show the ease and submissiveness of the subject to please the oftentimes male spectator. 

        There is a poster that uses the same woman and her positioning in the painting. The Poster was published in a portfolio in the 1980s by a group of anonymous, feminist, female artists that went by the Guerrilla Girls. The guerrilla Girls dedicated to combatting both race, sexism, and gender in the world of art. The use of nudity in this piece is to contradict and inquire about the use and representation of women in not just early European art, but all art.  

From the very beginning of civilization, women were depicted as an object of sexual pleasure for men. Berger reflects on this idea on his second episode of “The Way of Seeing.” We have observed this depiction since European oil paintings to modern day advertisement. Women have always been portrayed the way men want to see them. Their beauty depends on how men judge them. It is to be believed that a woman must have what men consider to be a perfect body in order to be “BEAUTIFUL.” It requires them to have a slim figure with pointy breasts and a skinny belly. If a woman is fat or has cellulite on her body, nobody will like her. Nowadays companies use pictures and videos of nude women in order to influence their male customers. Berger also explains how the nude European oil paintings of women were used to appeal to the male spectator. By these means, we can see that the tradition of depicting women in a way that is sexually appealing to men started a very long time ago and still exists today.

WE ALL ARE BEAUTIFUL

STOP BULLYING!!

In episode #2 John Berger emphasized on how women are seen in the eyes of the spectators, how they are being judged as a women and how it still relates today.

The term “naked” here means to be oneself where as “nude” means to expose oneself in an object and not realizing the fact that you are actually being exposed. 

Berger restructured the classical nude paintings and compared it with the modern images of women advertisements so as to show where really the status of women stands in the world at large. That’s when he started analyzing the relationship between men and women and their differences in depth.He directed the path on how to perceive the paintings and images. The relations between the painter and the women performing for the painting is inseparable  and there is no way to miss the sight of the main women character even though there are dozens of other characters within the same image.

One contemporary example I can relate here is the famous and iconic former American  world #1 tennis player (Billie Jean King- an LGBT figure herself0 who who 39 grand slam titles. she wasn’t that famous until she tackled her inner self to the world that converted how others should see and treat every individual equally after she won “The Battle of the Sexes” match against a 55 years old Bobby RIGGS.

In episode 2 of ways of seeing we come to see the perspective Berger has on how women were objectified by men through paintings. Also a great point that Berger develops is that women in paintings were not really depicted in them they were just portrayed the way they were for the pleasure of the spectator. Which at that time the spectator was mainly men and the painters were also mainly men as well. In the episode Berger also mentions how to be naked is to be oneself meanwhile to be nude is to be naked for a spectator but in a way as a disguise in order to please the individual observing the painting. I find this very interesting because in a way I believe we still do this for pictures in our every day life we typically are not ourselves when we take pictures and post them on social media. So from my point of view I think to be able to be ourselves in pictures we would need to not be aware of the picture being taken I have always thought those are more powerful pictures rather then someone simply smiling for a picture. Fortunately we have come a long way women are progressing and striving in all fields of expertise where before during the time of the paintings women were limited to even thinking of doing certain jobs and positions of power in politics that they have gotten now so this goes to show we have improved in society. From this episode all I took from it was how little women meant for men they were painted nude in order for the pleasure of men rather then being painted doing the tasks they do in their everyday lives or so on so the image we have thanks to the art is totally different from what women actually did in society at the time.

Bergers central point in episode two was that even in art women were labeled as objects to the viewer. The difference between nudity is when there appears to be an audience or some sort of viewer while being naked is when you’re alone in your own skin within yourself. Men were depicted as the more dominant ones basically implying that it didn’t matter what the women wanted. Through these works of art there was an image being portrayed. The image was women weren’t see for their thoughts or personality , but for the desire of a man. A point that Berger made was that women ultimately get judged for pampering themselves too much or self confident when that’s what men criticize women about. This was significant to me because being from the black community constantly on social media a lot of African American women are judged when they wear their natural kinky hair. The controversy comes in place when they try to get the look that society seems to say is good hair. Wigs and weaves are talked down by the media, but isn’t that the “look” that is praised? A Lot of these things don’t make sense, but will there ever be a time that certain ethnic groups won’t be criticized for being there self.

In the episode 2 of “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger says, “to be nakedness is to be yourself, to be nude is to be seen naked by others”. In his eyes, nudity means people can see woman’s body as an unemotional object in the old Western culture. He thinks man judged women casually and women’s status is low in the European tradition. Artists explain that a nude is women’s natural way to display themselves. In the other hand, the artists themselves are strangers in their eyes because they are wearing clothes on. But no matter the era, women are still seen to have lower status than man in many countries. For instance, women who live in countries with the religion of Islam are forced to cover their bodies and faces until they marry a man, their body can only take off their clothes in front of their husband. The society limits the power of women; women have less human right than men. Same as the Western artists who draw naked women in the oil painting, they think women as objects that belong to men. From the accent time to the present, men like to see women in the nude but they judge women in the nude at the same time.

Berger’s central point in episode #2 Of Ways Of Seeing proves to be true even in today’s society. The idea that women have been taught from an early age to survey themselves continually is ever present in today’s media. Many times in television shows, there will be a scene where a woman is being slowly and closely filmed in order to show off her physical looks. The purpose is to glorify her looks in order to catch the viewers attention, usually meant for the male viewer which in turn feeds into the objectification of women. In other cases, women are shamed/harassed for being of different sexual preference or identity and are often put down for not being “straight”.  One example which aligns with berger’s ideas in episode #2 is the advertising business and how it objectifies women in hopes of higher sales. The point of ads is to sell a product, but what happens when you add a women into the mix? Often times you’ll get half naked images of women, and other times its sexually suggestive images of women. All the time, it’s something that in some way degrades and objectifies women and builds the idea in their head that they must also be that way. 

 The video above is an example of how women are objectified in contemporary advertisements. The clip that follows works to relate the idea of how girls are taught to be that way from a young age. 

This video is a compilation of t.v scenes in which women are sexually objectified for the male viewer.