Berger and McCloud IWA

Berger IWA:

          Since I was in group one and helped write the summary and frame the reading, I will be using the same summary from the apparatus we've written:

Through commentary on artwork, John Berger helps us understand the situational and gendered placement of men and women in several classical period oil paintings. He details the way in which women are believed to sustain dual existences, which compose a woman’s identity, in being who they are while also being what others think they should be. Berger juxtaposes female identity in this way against man’s embodiment of power, which may be sincere or faked. In support of his claims about these gender dynamics, Berger explores European nude paintings in which women are objects for the voyeurism of a male gaze that constructs spectatorship from willing and unknowing participants. Through his analysis we can see, in artworks over many years, that the view may change, but do the purpose and object evolve, even if the spectators are not aware of the original intent of the paintings?

            To place Berger’s commentary in a modern cultural context, we must remember that the original premise for advertising using women as sexual object is based in these and similar oil paintings. Other similar and arguably artistic depictions of women as objects may also stem from these types of paintings. But you cannot put Berger in a modern context without understanding the gap between his premise and a modern reader’s understanding of gender roles. Modern gender roles are blurred enough that both men and women may, through transcending stereotypical gender boundaries, identify with either of Berger’s gender identity depictions, which are truly dated but applicable to the classical period when the oil paintings discussed were painted. Most people are now aware of how others perceive them, who perceives them, and the connection between the two, making the actual or pretense of power a reality for both genders. This reality is present in all texts, as texts are meant to be understood within the reality of a discourse community. So even if Berger’s research is dated in its conception of gender, we must consider how his ideas of the spectator and the subject still exist in our understanding of perspective. 

I will be assigning one question from each section to my class and the ones I've chosen are:

QD#2:1.       Where have you seen images of posed women in advertising or other pop culture? How have these images compared to the nudes discussed by Berger? How have our portrayals of women in visual media changed or stayed the same?

Specifically I remember a Hardee's advertisement that featured a woman in a 1960's vehicle, wearing the era clothing and sitting in the backseat at a drive-in. She is very aware that the camera is watching her, in fact, she performs "eating a cheeseburger" as the camera films. Hardee's argued that while the model took off clothing, released her hair (similar to Berger's claim of hair equalling power) and ate the dripping cheeseburger, that the commercial was created to make eating look sexy for National Eating Disorder Awareness Month.  Naturally, feminists and some other onlookers were not so happy with the other messages it put across for young women. The images that Berger discusses also address the spectator in a knowledge of voyeurism, but also for a male audience.  I would say that women in visual media has changed but it messages are on polar opposite ends of the spectrum: either the woman in the visual image is blatantly misrepresented and sexually objectified or it's become politically correct and friendly to the max. Think edited pictures on Maxim magazine vs. Dove beauty ads.

AE#1 Can you think of artwork that represents men in a particularly viewed way? Is there a generation gap between the paintings Berger chose and the one you can think of? Do you think that gap contributes to how the image is viewed?

I can think of one contemporary magazine ad that features a man holding a kid in one arm and laundry in the other. My mind goes immediately to how gender role representation has changed in the last few decades. the gender gap has created a difference because a 50's ad for spray starch features a woman in heels and an apron ironing her husband's shirt while he sits and reads the newspaper. The same gap is present between the ads that come to mind and the paintings Berger discusses,  however, some of the same inequalities still exist.  don't think that the gap changes the view, I think the image is viewed the way it is meant to be every time. The understanding of the view changes, though.

Meta Moment:

Why do you think you need to read an article concerned with the similarities and differences between nudes, nakedness, spectator, viewer, art, and advertisement? How could any of these concepts be connected to writing, audience, and authorship?

I think that the article is interested in the differences so that we can learn to define what exactly we are looking at understand the intent of such pictures and how they are to be seen. Intent is part of framing. Framing, we learned from Stuart Green, is the border of what and author or artist wants us to see and the lens in which it is to be viewed. the connection is that the creator of the artwork, whether written or visual, controls how we understand something by supplying us with meanings and insight. The more insight we have, the more we understand and can decipher ourselves what to believe and what to argue.

Scott McCloud IWA:  I also helped write the summary and framing for the McCloud reading as a group one member, so instead of being redundant, I am using the collaborated version from the apparatus:

Scott McCloud demonstrates his belief in human connection and symbols by not just telling us (the audience) about them, but by showing us. By using the comic/graphic format, we can comprehensively connect to his ideas about how we see ourselves better in less detailed drawings while we visually notice the differences in more elaborate images. These less detailed drawings, or icons, are how we begin to perceive ourselves. For example, children often start drawing people and themselves as stick figures. These initial perceptions of ourselves, which also affect how we compose our worldviews, help us to see part of ourselves in similar icons, which is why we identify so well with cartoons:  “We don’t just observe the cartoon, we become it” (14). When we assimilate the nature of how we identify so well with cartoons, we learn that we are programmed to understand universal emotion and react to it both visually and mentally because of how ingrained icon imagery is in us. McCloud taps into the connection to communicate his point.

McCloud uses the comic/graphic format to effectively demonstrate the message he is putting forth for his audience. Perspectives and images/pictures depict the conversation in a visual way, including the use of frames to hold each image separate. McCloud is able to convey his message literally through framing, as defined by Greene, by making the dialog a conversation directly with the reader.  McCloud manages this move through handing the reader the mask (a framing tool) rather than letting the reader define the frame. At this point, McCloud has defined the rhetorical situation:  he (author/speaker) is in conversation with you (audience/decoder) about how you connect with icons/cartoon images (topic). What he has done is allow you to enter his frame, his detailed perspective, on how icons and cartoon images work for people, specifically you (the reader).

The questions I will have my students complete:

Before You Read:  ●      Try to recall what your favorite cartoon was or still is. Do you relate to a character and find yourself connecting? What features do you think help you connect?

My favorite cartoon as a kid was The Last Unicorn, in which a very shy girl, drawn awkwardly and very anime, is turned into a unicorn and never truly feels at home in her body. Now, I didn't see it this way when I was a child, I'm sure, but I can analyze it as an adult that I connected with never feeling at home in my body as a child. I was ultra-feminine, wearing the pink dresses and ruffles with long hair, but it was to fit in with other girls and be what I though I had to be to be considered "girly" or "pretty." In all actuality, I was a chubby girl that was bashful and was awkward in social situations.  I connected with the character a great deal.

Q1.      Why do you think adults still like the simplicity of cartoons? Do you think there is an age in which watching cartoons or reading comics is inappropriate? What do you think McCloud would have to say about it?

I think adults like the simplicity of cartoons because it's an automatic permission to laugh and not take things as serious as every day life. While I think some cartoons take advantage of that permission, I think at the end of the day people just need something simple to relate to and unwind. I do not think there is an innapropriate age in which to watch cartoons, but I am a cartoon watcher. I think McCloud would agree that cartoons reach a vast amount of people and can be helpful, so he would agree.

AE 1:      Do you think more teaching strategies should contain visual imagery? What sort of lesson do you think would benefit from it?

I think some people are very much visual learners and I think that's why Youtube is very popular right now. I think any instruction and "how-to" lesson can be amplified by visuals, but I also think that some of the harder subjects that people can not relate to could benefit from a cartoon or visual nature, such as same-sex couple families for children and adoption. "Fun Home"by Allison Bechdel is her memoir of her closeted father and the format used is wonderful. It's a graphic comic that when the subject increases in intensity, so does the drawings. Wonderful book!