Ways of seeing

John Berger’s book focused on how “ men act” and “ women appear. This is his main observation and has been the main issue discussed in the book. Berger pointed out one of his observations: men undoubtedly look at women. On the other hand, women watch themselves being looked at by these men, aware of their presence and their actions. In line with Berger’s observation, men really look at women more than anything else (Berger 1990). Meanwhile, women are conscious that they are being watched by these men.

Consequently, the actions of both these men and women depend on the previous statements. Men tend to show their interests and intentions by merely looking at these women, while the women tries their best to always look good, aware that they are being watched. It has been a subtle, unnoticeable fact that, men and women are affected by each other in the way they act and feel. Berger showed that even in the European art forms from starting from the Renaissance, women are already aware of being seen by male audience, thus her actions are affected by that fact.

These artworks especially paintings showed how women are affected by the fact that they are being watched, as manifested by female nudes, showing how these showed submission to the owner of both woman and the artwork. An implication of this is that whether the women would act differently if they wouldn’t be affected by men’s gazes. Would the definition or characteristics of a woman be any different if the feel that they are not being watched? It has been a part of men’s nature to look at women, and I think that it is a bad habit to break, as well as the habit of watching themselves by women because they feel that they are being watched.