John Berger

John Berger analyses how men and women are culturally represented. In "Ways of Seeing" Berger claims that the representations of men and women in visual culture entice different 'gazes', different ways in which they are looked at. He states that 'men act women appear, men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at'. The woman is usually posed in a way to please the viewer and the audience, her gaze is meant to entice the viewer, and this notion is the same in modern day advertisements and photographs. Berger states that a women unconsciously acts in a way knowing she is being viewed. Women are constantly surveyed, and not only by men, but other women too, and also by themselves.

More about Way's of Seeing
John Berger's "Way's of Seeing" is an in depth look on art, the way people view it and the influences that traditional oil paintings have had on society and modern day publicity. A lot of famous artists from hundreds of years ago, mainly during the French revolution painted naked women, either looking at the audience, or glancing through the corner of their eye. This intriguing the audience, due to the way she is looking, and also for the lack of clothing.
John Berger looked at art and how historic paintings have adapted to modern day imagery and ideologies. Images are the most powerful communicator that exist. There are things that people cannot describe in words, but that images can illustrate and explain. The power images have also mystifies viewers. An example of this is the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Berger states that women were 'depicted in a different way to men - because the "ideal" spectator is always assumed to be male, and the image of the women is designed to flatter him'. Jib Fowles states 'in advertising males gaze and females are gazed at' (1996)
This shows that both Mulvey and Berger feel that women are the objects for men to look at, desire and seek pleasure from. An example of this being used in modern day culture, is in a lot of modern music videos, a prime example being Rihanna - Pour It Up.




The video features Rihanna, and several other women wearing hardly anything at all, and performing seductive dance moves - this being used to gain the males attention to the video, and also Rihanna's music. As well as this, it also gains the attention of females, either those that like other women, and also those who wish to be like Rihanna, and have her body/looks.

Paul Messaris (1997)
Paul Messaris says female models in ads addressed to women 'treat the lends as a substitute for the eye of an imaginary male onlooker'. Adding that it could be argued that when these women look at these ads, they are actually seeing themselves as a man might see them.
This argument by Messaris is saying that women know what they are portraying and that they are able to view themselves as how men want to perceive them to be in control of their desirability. 
Women and sex are used profusely in advertisement since it appeals to both women and men. Men want the women and the sex, and the women want to be the women within the advertisements. This study looks at and compares how women in the media industry are used to the exact purpose that female nudity was used in traditional oil paintings. To be looked at, desired, envied and to be seen as desirable women, not only by men but also by other women.

 'Such ads appear to imply a male point of view, even though the intended viewer is often a woman. So the women who look at these ads are being invited to identify both with the person being viewed and with an implicit, opposite sex viewer'

This demonstrates that women are aware of the choices they make, and are making these statements for a reason. The example images above, show modern day album covers by Rihanna, Batforlashes, and also Nicki Minaj. Rihannah and Nicki being well known for hardly wearing in clothing, and also for showing off a lot of their bodies in both music videos and the real world.