Ways of Seeing - Book Report/Review Example

Ways of Seeing The first article, entitled, “Ways of Seeing”, discusses the ways in which women are viewed in popular culture and art within the constructs that this representation is merely an extension of the medieval nudes that rose to such popularity during the Middle Ages. Moreover, rather than viewing these representations in modern culture as something of repression of women, the author instead posits that the representation of women in mainstream culture still represent strong elements of the ultimate character, personality, and her own concept and understanding of self worth and presence. This fundamental representation of self-awareness, the author argues, has been instilled culturally as a fundamental precept of femininity. As a means of furthering this understanding, the author goes on to argue that the woman’s representation of self within popular culture and art is ultimately not the representation that a male dominated society is foisting upon the woman but instead an ultimate representation of how the woman herself wishes to be viewed. This is a fundamental break between what traditional understandings of the way in which male and female representations within pop culture and society have come to mean. Such a level of understanding is furthered throughout the piece as prime examples which help to solidify the author’s point of view are enumerated upon. The fundamental idea at the heart of what the author is attempting to get across is the idea that although it may seem as if objectification is taking place, and this may very well be the case, the societal interpretation of objectification has been incorrectly broadcast and understood as something that is entirely caused by and encouraged by male desire is fundamentally a flawed and incorrect concept. Instead, the author seeks to point to the fact that women view themselves in much the same way that men view them; and even achieve a certain degree of self image and status or worth from what would otherwise be labeled as simple objectification – both in the media and without. It is the opinion of this student that the author of this piece is on to an important concept of gender identity, roles, norms, and societal constructs; however, it cannot be fully accepted to be an adequate representation of the current or past state of affairs with regards to popular culture or the mass media as it is painfully clear that the main shareholders within the media and advertising are almost exclusively male and as such the biases and representations that they wish to be exhibited will invariably have a greater importance than the way in which the female wishes to be viewed. Due to the level of difference that exist within women, it is impossible to say that all women behave in the way that the author thinks. Even more troubling is the fact that the author’s point of view actually encourages what some could view as a chauvinist’s interpretation of the female. Rather than actively trying to correct the wrongs that a male dominated society, media, and advertising apparatus necessarily engenders, the author instead chooses to gloss over this and merely explain that women wish to be viewed in such a way; thereby making it ok. Instead, a more reasonable approach would be to state that there is a high likelihood that key differences between the way that men wish to portray women and the way that women are actually portrayed exists. Although the level to which this exists may be somewhat smaller than what many feminists would admit to, the fact remains that it is far more probably than what has ultimately been presented to the reader by the author in attempting to state that there exists hardly any difference at all between the way that women wish to be viewed and the means by which a patriarchal society ultimately objectifies them. Using common logic, the reader can understand that very few woman gains any sense of self worth or satisfaction from being objectified unless she has had a very traumatic life experience which has caused her understanding of affection and attention to be fundamentally flawed and/or altered. Though the author offers some very good points with regards to the mutual way in which men and women view the objectification of females, it is this student’s opinion that there remains a fundamental misunderstanding that Berger has made with regards to overlooking key components of human sexuality, gender differences, and the affects of a culture and society that is dominated by a male patriarchal system. Work Consulted Berger, John. Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp. Penguin Books, 1972. Print. Read More