In the video “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger mentions that the image of women has been influenced by the gaze of men from Genesis on. He satires this phenomenon by using European nude paintings of women. In discussion of nude and women, Berger responds a different view that naked body is oneself to be naked, but nudity is to be seen naked by viewers with Kenneth Clack who says that being naked is simply being without clothes and nude is a form of art. At the same time, I believe Clack, I also believe that naked is different from nude.

In European, the nude paintings of women depicts the way of women view their images in a patriarchal society. As Berger says, the behavior of women who are in these nude paintings have no connection to their environments. Their behaviors are to be seeing by peeper or those who view the paintings like us. They consider themselves’ images from the perspective of viewers.What’s more, they will be ashamed by the gaze of men, even they make the move to attract and please men. Nude gradually became a symbol that women are defined beautiful. They are not born to be naked, just because men like to see them naked. In other words, nudity is a cloth that they can not take off and use to create their own image of beauty.

In fact, now the representations of women objectify them in the similar ways as the depicted what Berger argues about women in Renaissance paintings. Women wear different clothes to play different roles in today’s society. We can observe this phenomenon from various mass media. For example, advertisements objectify women from the perspective of the male gaze, and use photos that seduce male sexual feelings to promote the advertisement. Sexy body, ruddy lips, miniskirts and high heels,etc., which enable women to view themselves from the perspective of men and to shape their own image. The unilateral outputting of image advertisement from the media make women set up their aesthetic. It also reflects that women do not control their images in the media, they still determined by the male gaze.

However, I think that sexuality do not play the same role in images of women today as what Berger describes. In this era when more and more people are chasing gender equality, more and more women shape their own image from themselves perspective. They see themselves as more and more important and do not take sexuality as their main motivation. In conclusion, even though the image of women is still affected by the male gaze, their perspective of view themselves is gradually transitioning from the perspective of viewers to their own.