Ways of Seeing by Berger: The body as an object (2/3)
By: Ali Crighton
Tags: John Berger, Intuitive Eating, Feminism, Body Positive, Art History

The notion that art and media has historically objectified the female body is not really a radical perspective in this day and age. We have heard it before and you could argue pointless virtue signalling if I simply shouted ‘we’ve been objectified!’. Yes, that’s true, but let’s dive deeper into it. That’s where it gets interesting. Inside the complexities of female objectification and its pervasive influence on what it is to be a woman.

When reading Berger I was led to asking myself: what is the responsibility of the woman herself in the process of female objectification? Is she purely a victim? I think that the answer to the latter is for the most part no, to be honest. I think in the day to day and more common circumstances, we play a role in objectifying ourselves. This is important and not to be misconstrued as victim-blaming (I believe any notion of blame or finger pointing is always unhelpful and never reflective of the whole truth). Berger deconstructs these ideas in his second and third chapters of this book.

[The] exemplary treatment of a woman by herself constitutes her presence. [A woman’s] presence regulates what is and is not ‘permissible’ within her presence.

This is so interesting to me. When contemplating this, I put all instances of sexual assault and abuse to one side. What we are discussing here and now are the common everyday experiences and underlying energy of female objectification. Yes, it is a generalisation but there is something to learn from this. Berger describes how “men act and women appear”, when a man crosses a room, he crosses a room. But when a woman crosses a room, she is often surveyed and assigned names or labels. The interesting thing is that the surveyor is both external (other men and women) as well as the woman herself.

This is the inevitable outcome of years of depiction of the feminine body in art and media as a vision or a sight — something to look at, something to describe, to name, to own. In this way the female face and body does not belong to the woman they carry but are turned outward to be reviewed or to be used. As a woman grows through life from puberty to adulthood, she consumes this media (at an alarming rate in this modern age). The outcome is an implicit understand of herself as some thing not some one. And her own treatment of herself as a vision or sight, therefore exacerbates the issue. It demonstrates to those in her presence what is right and wrong in how they treat her.

(I know that this happens to men too but I think it is fair to say that the rate at which womxn experience these issues is or has been far larger).

I relate to Berger’s argument a lot. I am on a long journey toward discarding a harmful perception of my body as an object or vision. As a teenager, I consumed a lot of media and culture which taught me that a female body can be ranked based on its appearance. I learned that one can have an objectively good or great appearance and too, one can have a bad appearance. A good appearance garners respect and admiration while a bad appearance does not.

From comparing myself to what society deemed as a ‘good’ physical appearance, I understood that my body was conventionally attractive. I also learned this from being told by others. As a result, I came to view my body as an asset or an object that is consumed through sight. I became obsessed with its appearance and a healthy diet became a means to the end of a good appearance as opposed to general health and vitality. But by treating my body as an object, I demonstrated to others what was permissible in their treatment of my body. Attaching so much importance to the way I looked made me insecure because I implicitly knew that physical appearance is inevitably ever changing. So the insecurity was a natural outcome of grasping on to something that was inherently transient and temporary.

The thing that strikes me the most on contemplation of Berger’s essay is how all of this reconciles with our use of social media today. This book was first published in 1972. What would Berger say today of TikTok and Instagram. Would he argue that we are perpetuating the objectification of women through how we use these platforms? Is it the case that sharing photos of your face or body online is taking ownership over your assets or is it exacerbating the issue. One might argue that while in previous times, the patriarchy objectified the female body through classical painting and then advertisement, now the woman has taken over the task. Thereby enhancing the implicit culture of seeing bodies for their physical appearance as opposed to something for a womxn to own, something for herself only.

I’m not too sure what the answer is. What I am sure of is that there is a lot I don’t know and I probably hold some misguided perceptions. Despite what is likely communicated from this post, I am actually of the opinion that one should do whatever they so wish with their body so long as it is harming no one. But I think we can take more action to reinforce the notion in all individuals that their body is first and foremost a means of living, a portal which carries you around in this world. Therefore, it’s health and vitality is of utmost importance, and that includes mental health too. And there probably are still some changes that should be made in social media and advertising in order to prevent cultural objectification of the human body. It’s not healthy to promote a culture which values something so ephemeral as physical appearances.