The surveyor and the surveyed can be seen as an appraoch to how women viewed themselves to attract men to take care of them.
The images and paintings that are in Berger’s Ways of Seeing shows a side of men and women studies that have come a long way although, there are some elements and ideas that are the same and have change. Berger makes it clear that the images and paintings relate that message to his readers.īerger’s explanations relate to feminism in relation to women placing themselves into a sphere of domesticity, relying on a man to “treat” them.
Men were placed in these spheres of hierarchy and women were placed in spheres set forth by men. Bressler defines patriarchy as, “A societal or social organization in which men hold a disproportionate amount of power where men define what it means to be human, including what it means to be female” (149). There is also a sense of patriarchy in Berger’s words, “If a woman makes a good joke this is an example of how she treats the joker” he goes on to say, “Only a man can make a good joke for its own sake” (47). Women even viewed themselves as objects, Berger explains, “Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight” which in return made men look at them as objects (47). Berger states, “Men survey women before treating them” meaning that how women portray themselves is how men will treat them (46). During the time of these images and paintings that are shown in chapters two and three show men surveying women as objects. I don’t believe that Berger is trying to degrade women by any means however, women were viewed as objects rather than humans in a men’s perspective. My initial thought of feminist theory stems from Berger’s idea, “She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men” (46).ĭescribed by Bressler, feminist theory focuses on changing a society that is controlled by men and change the degrading view of women (144). Currently, I am studying literary criticisms and feminist theory is evident in Berger’s work. This is the second week of studying visual rhetoric and referring back to feminism. Reading through chapter three and viewing the images, I began to refer to feminist theory.
Both the surveyor and the surveyed being a woman. In John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, he discusses the surveyor and the surveyed in the use of paintings.
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