TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH BERGER THAT...
TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH BERGER THAT:
This is a soliloquy from john Berger’s “Way of seeing” a book with a unique view on Art and has many great quotes from Berger himself. This quote specifically talks about women and how they perceive themselves and their underlying need to fix their appearance. It is a very accurate depiction of women throughout the years, and now this influence has found its way into modern media.
Although I have to partially disagree with his statement that "The surveyor of woman in herself is male". It almost sounds as if women want to appear nice for men. Where that may play a part for some females it is not the sole reason for most. I would assume some or most women would survey themselves for their own self-esteem and want to appear presentable for themselves rather than men most of the time.
Even though I do not agree with Berger’s opinion on a surveyed female turning herself into an object of vision, I do however agree with Berger’s gender oppositions which is very commonly seen in today’s media. Berger’s comparison of men being strong, thoughtful and dominant compared to women being weak, impulsive and submissive is seen in the media heavily and in my opinion is very unacceptable. A growing market for young people from the ages of five to early twenties are video-games. Video-games are one of the worst media platforms to be a culprit of portraying women exactly like Berger’s gender opposition states. A known example is the character Lara Croft from the tomb raider series, a series almost 20 years old and yet 20 years later, over sexualisation of women in video-games continue to get worse. Not only does the video game platform over sexualises women it also presents women as weak and less intelligent exteriors compared to their male counter parts much like Berger's gender oppositions. An infamous example of this is the character princess peach from the Mario franchise. This is a character who for almost 70% of Mario's 200+ video game library is constantly kidnapped and in need to be saved by the dashingly strong Mario.
In the end I partially agree with John Berger’s statement that women who from a young age are taught to survey themselves. In the end it seems as if Berger is claiming all women who take extreme pride in their appearance are just an object of vision which I disagree with, reason why stated above. Overall I do understand what Berger is saying but I don’t agree with his opinions.
“A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually. And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman. She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life. Her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another....
One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object -- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”
One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object -- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”
This is a soliloquy from john Berger’s “Way of seeing” a book with a unique view on Art and has many great quotes from Berger himself. This quote specifically talks about women and how they perceive themselves and their underlying need to fix their appearance. It is a very accurate depiction of women throughout the years, and now this influence has found its way into modern media.
Firstly I strongly agree with Berger's statement that a
woman “is almost continually accompanied
by her own image of herself” as many times in the media we have seen women portrayed
as having slim and stereotypical model like physique . An example of this is
Protein World’s ad campaign back in 2015 showing an image of a slim woman in a
yellow bikini with the tagline “are you beach body ready?” This idea of a
supermodel body may influence insecure women maybe causing them to have some
self-grief. The ad sparked lots of attention causing over 60,000 petition to remove
it for that reason. Is it worth causing this just to get more buyers?
Although I have to partially disagree with his statement that "The surveyor of woman in herself is male". It almost sounds as if women want to appear nice for men. Where that may play a part for some females it is not the sole reason for most. I would assume some or most women would survey themselves for their own self-esteem and want to appear presentable for themselves rather than men most of the time.
What Berger says about women who survey themselves and in
the end turns herself into “an object of vision” is not wholly true. In movies
especially there are many examples of women who look good and strong and aren’t
looking for male attention, a few examples are Leia Organa from star wars,
Buffy Summers from Buffy the vampire slayer and Daenerys Targaryen from Game of
Thrones.
Even though I do not agree with Berger’s opinion on a surveyed female turning herself into an object of vision, I do however agree with Berger’s gender oppositions which is very commonly seen in today’s media. Berger’s comparison of men being strong, thoughtful and dominant compared to women being weak, impulsive and submissive is seen in the media heavily and in my opinion is very unacceptable. A growing market for young people from the ages of five to early twenties are video-games. Video-games are one of the worst media platforms to be a culprit of portraying women exactly like Berger’s gender opposition states. A known example is the character Lara Croft from the tomb raider series, a series almost 20 years old and yet 20 years later, over sexualisation of women in video-games continue to get worse. Not only does the video game platform over sexualises women it also presents women as weak and less intelligent exteriors compared to their male counter parts much like Berger's gender oppositions. An infamous example of this is the character princess peach from the Mario franchise. This is a character who for almost 70% of Mario's 200+ video game library is constantly kidnapped and in need to be saved by the dashingly strong Mario.
In the end I partially agree with John Berger’s statement that women who from a young age are taught to survey themselves. In the end it seems as if Berger is claiming all women who take extreme pride in their appearance are just an object of vision which I disagree with, reason why stated above. Overall I do understand what Berger is saying but I don’t agree with his opinions.
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