This week’s topic was about nudes.

The first meeting was just an introduction to the topic. There was a power point presentation about the different ways of how we see things. After that was a presentation of nude paintings. At first I was trying to figure out why in the world most of the paintings only depicted women. Of course, that was answered once I read “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger.

Apparently, this was really how the western world viewed women. Women were regarded as objects which men were entitled ownership of. They were expected to know their place. This is where the concept of the surveyed and the surveyor comes in. According to the reading, the men were the surveyor. It is through them that women see themselves. Women on the other hand were both the surveyed and the surveyor. They were expected to do things for the satisfaction of men and to be treated as such; they had to see themselves as how the men see them.

The nudes somehow simplify this concept. All the men had to do to boost their already inflated egos is to look at a nude painting. For a painting to be considered a nude, the first criterion is of course, it should include a naked woman. Next, the woman in the painting has to have contact with her “owner”, in this case, the man looking at the painting (not the man, in some cases, with her in the painting). To have that kind of contact, she has to then be looking at the beholder. And the last and “most important” criterion of all, the beholder has to see the woman as an object.

In class, this was summarized as, the women in the paintings satisfy men’s sexual desire, they are aware they are seen as such, they are regarded as objects, they are submissive, and there is a spectator (the man aka owner).

Sadly, this western view of women hasn’t changed much. Even with the rise of feminism, women are still seen through the eyes of the spectator. One only has to look at the number of men’s magazines and the number of women who want to be featured in it to realize that women are still seen as objects. What even harder to accept is the fact that how women see themselves is still tainted with the western concept of women.

In contrast to the western nude, the eastern concept of nakedness (not nude) sees women as men’s equal (in terms of sexuality, I guess, but not in all aspects of life). The eastern art does not have the idea of male ownership. Women are not owned, rather, there is an interaction between man and woman or, what can be called as an attraction. Lastly, it portrays love and not merely desire or lust.

I honestly like the eastern version better for the simple fact that it does not objectify women. I personally see myself as man’s equal, sometimes, I even think of myself as better than most men.