Blog Post #2

In the 1972 BBC television project “Ways of Seeing” John Berger argues that female nude portrayed in Renaissance painting is constructed to please and satisfy men, rather than representing freedom and nature, and same argument can be used in the representation of women today as well. Nowadays, everyone can easily post, view, and comment any images through media. It may seem as if people are posting the pictures of their everyday life without thinking anything, to show the natural beauty, yet in reality most of the pictures are constructed the same way renaissance paintings are. When a woman wants to post a photo of herself, she doesn’t simply take one photo on her phone and post it. She has to wear a make up, set up her hair, wear trending clothes, even set up the objects around her properly. After setting up everything, now she has to take many photos, with different poses and from different angles. From there she carefully looks at each photos and choose the best one, and she can finally post one picture after all these effort. Of course, not all women goes through all those steps and efforts, but when they do they tend to get more positive reactions or comments because that is the ideal images that satisfy the viewers. Women nowadays still do not have much control over their images in the media because she has to think about what people want to see, what kind of pictures would please the viewers, typically men, or no one will be interested in her.

2 thoughts on “Blog Post #2

  1. Cherilene Guzman

    I like how you made the connection of how most pictures on social media are constructed the same way as renaissance paintings are. Nowadays with photoshop, people take their own photos and edit themselves until they feel that they meet a certain standard of beauty.
    I do think though that society has become more accepting of “flaws”. Women loving their bodies for what they are has become slightly more popular.

  2. Jiaqi Gao

    I couldn’t agree with you more. From the Renaissance to the present, most women dress and makeup to please others, even for role play. However, with the continuous progress of culture, some contemporary women began to pursue an independent personality and self. They no longer care about the opinions of others and can even free themselves at any time.

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