perceptions of nudity
...ness. Berger explains that not only are men judging women, but women critique themselves internally also. Berger thinks this aspect of a woman’s personality in male (Berger 47). I do not like, nor do I agree with the rationality of a woman seeing herself as male, because women are by nature more receiving than men, but Berger’s assumption of female is loosely like a side effect of the male character. Women do seek out appreciation from men, but also from other women. Men have the same qualities. They do put a lot of weight on achievements and strength but they also seek the same kind of approval from women and other men. I put much of myself worth in my achievements; therefore, Berger’s opinion only seems rational when it is in reference to the past. When nudity or nakedness is added to these core qualities, things get more uncertain. Kenneth Clark shared my original belief that being naked is to be without clothes, but call it art and it becomes a nude composition (Berger 53). Berger also states that “nakedness was created in the mind of the beholder” (Berger 48). If nakedness was created in our minds, why not consider the nude composition? After all we are the ones who ultimately make the distinction between art and pornography. This is not the question of what art is and what is junk because that question is at length rhetorical. It is an intimate decision that one makes on how they perceive an interpretation of a person’s fundamental state. In response to Rubens description of his wife, I could assume that he is immortalizing a moment that he cherished with his wife. This moment represents the art of love, but I do see her as his possession. Berger writes that almost all post-Renaissance is frontal because the sexual protagonist is the spectator, which gives this kind of art an experience, meaning a person enjoys it by just observing (Berger 56). Rubens painting of his wife is like a photograph. His inspiration was probably a striking experience with the woman he loved and the painting was his way of always remembering. Rubens situation obviously does not hold true for all or even most of the relationships between the viewer and the viewed. Many of the statements in the chapter did a good job of exploiting women. ‘’She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her,” is the way Berger explains the regression in men views"(Berger 50). The pieces have little or nothing to do with any real women. The artist is selling fantasy to men who are too weak to make their fantasies a reality. In “The Couple” by Max Slevogt, the woman, Eve, stares out at the viewer, perhaps guilty, while the man confidently poses with his hands on his hips and his nose in the air. This is the male fantasy that blames women for all things gone wrong. God forbid they take any of the responsibility. Another fantasy that is portrayed is a woman doing an ordinary task, such as bathing or looking in a mirror, for the enjoyment of the watcher, Susannah and the Elders by Tintoretto shows not only Susannah in the bath, but people painted into the composition spying on her. These compositions are mostly if not entirely from Europe in the post renaissance era. Since I started to research the nude figure, I have found supreme truth. Nude or naked paintings provide the power of suggestion free of physical arousal, because a man’s imagination has doubled or tripled the impact of live adu...