The Sixty Year Itch In John Berger's Ways Of Seeing

The Sixty Year Itch

In John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Berger describes the presence of woman as an expression of their attitude towards themselves and how she will let others view/treat her. Berger simplifies this idea by saying “men act, women appear.” To elaborate on “men act, women appear.” Berger goes onto say, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female.” Berger provides a very interesting example of this idea by looking back upon 18th century art; specifically oil paintings. In Berger’s words, “women in painting are there to feed an appetite, not to have any of their own.” He also discusses that the nude woman in the paintings are made to appeal to heterosexual men. And on top of this the painter is never painted; however, we say its safe to say, it was a man behind the brush. In that sense it is safe

(sixty years after the image surfaced people can to recognize the iconic moment and the icon behind it). This iconic image was used in the original movie poster to promote The Seven Year Itch in 1955, and while the movie is mostly famous for the Marilyn Monroe meets subway grate scene with lots of leg, it is a movie where Monroe is being depicted as the sex appeal for her ogling downstairs neighbor. The way in which Ewell’s character depicts Monroe, demonstrates the lust and sexiness of a fantasy he has for her. In other movies, such as Some Like It Hot, and Gentlemen prefer blonds showed up again to play the part of an eager but innocent sex goddess. These movies showed her as an object to the desirous feelings that men