John Berger - Ways of Seeing (1972)

John Berger

In Berger's theory he takes an artistic approach to the representations of women. In his essay, “Ways of Seeing” Berger (1972) states "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" (p.46). This quote reflects Berger’s idea that woman is cautious of herself physically, and understands her role in society as an object of beauty and desire. According to Berger (1972) a woman is taught to “survey herself”, but most importantly to survey how she appears to man (p.46). In can be argued that this is an inherited attribute that she has learned from her mother and she therefore reflects this attitude as a “normal” feminine feature.

Adam and Eve - Jan Gossaert (1532)

In Ways of Seeing (1972) Berger identifies that this view of women dates back to the Renaissance period and can be recognised in many European paintings. He argued that these paintings influenced women’s perceptions of themselves and integrated a weary attitude to male spectators (Chandler, 2000: lines 5-6). In a period of strong religious beliefs many artists were concerned with the creating a visual representation of the Garden of Eden. In these paintings Eve was presented in a negative way due to her shame in taking a bite out of the forbidden fruits. Her shame later became a kind of display. In these paintings there remains the “...implication that the subject (a woman) is aware of being seen by a spectator” (Berger, 1972: 49). 

The idea that woman is negative and man is positive has been discussed by many feminist critics throughout the years. Psychologists however, argued that woman is “othered” in the patriarchal society dominated by men. Berger (1972) argued that “men act and women appear” (p.47), therefore this implies that women are only good for visual pleasure and nothing else. 

In these paintings women were often looking into a mirror. Berger (1972) suggests that “the mirror was often used as a symbol of the vanity of a woman [and that its function was] to make the woman connive in treating herself as...a sight” (p.51). Therefore, this reinforced the association of vanity and allowed the woman to understand herself as an object of desire and a vision of the male gaze.

Lastly Berger (1972) made a distinction between nude and naked paintings as he argued that to be naked is to simply be without clothes, whereas the nude is an art form which is generally placed on display for the pleasure of others. (p.53-4). The sexual aspects of this argument are supported by Carter in her ‘Polemical Preface’: The Sadeian Women. In this essay Carter (1993) explains that a woman’s naked body symbolises the idea that woman is flesh and “the function of flesh is pure pleasure” (p.20). 

The idea’s around the naked female body will be further explored in my analysis of Carter’s short story of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ in comparison to the ‘The Tiger’s Bride’. This will specifically explore the performative aspects of the gaze and question the binary oppositions of men and women.