9-10-12 Ways of Seeing Assignment

9-10-12

Greg Warman   

English 1510

Ways of Seeing Assignment

Before You Read:

1)      I looked for a picture of a male and female celebrity.  The male celebrity, Brad Pitt, was depicted in a fashionable pair of underwear with a black and white filter.  His body was turned to the side, showing off his impeccable abs all while his head was slightly tilted, showing off his defined jaw bone.  His eyes were staring boldly into the camera.  The picture of the female was Beyonce, who was wearing a skin tight, red leather, dress.  This showed off cleavage of hers that was entirely too perfect to not be photo-shopped, and her legs seemed to go on for days.  Her head was also tilted to one side, with her arms behind her head and her eyes closed.  This really accentuated her curves, whether they were all natural or due to a great photo editor. 

QDJ:

22)      A great example of how the image of women is used to draw attention to man is the commercials for Hooters.  The women depicted in these commercials are holding wings and beer, with a football game on a huge widescreen TV behind them.  They are dressed in extremely short shorts with their breasts pushed together and cleavage easily visible.  These can be compared to Berger’s pictures because the women in the commercial are as close to nude as a woman can be on public television.  The portrayal of woman is that they are sexually attractive to men by what (little) they wear.  Also emotional attraction is built due to the actions of the women in the commercials: holding wings and beer, and having  an attraction to sports. 

4)  The audience is meant to be for guys.  One knows this by the wording of Berger’s argument about the image of women.  With Berger being a man, he offers this argument to other men to help them to understand how a woman‘s image is created and perceived, to the best of his ability. It was easy to figure this out because he offers the format of his information as an essay of information about how men view women instead of guidelines for women to help them to better their own image.

5) The “other” is in regards to the sight of someone without clothes on.  This offers disclosure because it provokes instant relief from past fantasy and desire of the nudity of the person. This can change the perspective can change the attitude of the spectator in the case of one viewing someone in the nude and what they see does not match up to what they had previously thought they’d see.  This may cause the spectator to view the person in the nude differently, even once their clothes are back on again because they didn’t look how they wanted them to look in their nude. 

AEI:

11)      Beer commercials depict men as masculine, beer-thirty, wing-hungry people who work hard all week long and then relax on football game days with their “bros” while their wives are no where to be found (or making other food for the guys.) There is a difference between the Berger paintings because the reason behind the commercial and paintings by Berger are different. The reasoning behind the commercial is to advertise the product and relate to the audience. The reasoning of the paintings are to depict the beauty of the nude and try to sell the painting. Instead of using the body as art, as Berger does, the use of the women is now to cause fantasy and desire in men and totally switch up man’s idea of the role of women.

Meta Moment:

                It is important for me to read an article concerning the similarities and differences between nudes, nakedness, spectator, viewer, art, and advertisement because by me taking a stand in one perspective and opinion of these subjects, it allows me to open up my mind to how I view other things, not just controversial naked pictures. The view I have based on this reading allows to me be able to view how I mold my papers to shape my own views and how to persuade my audience in my papers to have the same perspective that I have.