John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" Response
By Pamela Buscema
I really enjoyed Berger's "Ways of Seeing." It was extremely insightful and totally reframed my conceptions of art and my own femininity. Episode 2 resonated with me the most, in that I couldn't have agreed more, but was also so frustrating in realizing that the entire construct of women was crafted by men! How strange is it to think that as women we have so much power over men, maybe more of a "sexual" power, and yet at the same time we are entirely powerless. Paintings of women being beaten, raped, harrased and murdered are entirely problematic acting as a basis for structuring culture. Early depictions of nude women are idealized; they are simply the perversions and pleasures of men. They are not real and show gross exageations of hairless women with huge breasts and a fat ass!! It is so horrible that "culture" as we know today has been built off of men's objection of women and the notion of women being vain, passive things simply existing as they wait for men. I'm over it.