Week 2

 John Berger

"To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself."

- The expression of being "naked" is to be down to the core of the way you live, the body you obtain, and how you are as a person, but being nude is to expose your body to other people and when you are seen naked by other people, they don't process the person you are and leads you to be perceived differently to who you actually are. I think this is a strong quote and really makes you think about how being naked and nude have two different meanings and carries a different weight to it.

"By contrast, a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her."

- I thought that this quote is very important to understand because of the lesson it teaches us about the body language and the thought women have towards men. I think it is very important to understand that by treating women the way they want to be treated by the way they express themselves is important to take account of to make them feel more than comfortable and have the feeling that they are more than just a "woman."

Bell Hooks, Understanding Patriarchy and The Oppositional Gaze

"Patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence."

- The patriarchy is a very poor construct that women feel as if they feel like they have to live in. I believe that everyone should be able to have the same ability to make a change in the world no matter who you are.

"To indoctrinate boys into the rules of patriarchy, we force them to feel pain and deny their feelings."

- I think that this quote is very interesting to break down and shows that women want men to experience what they have to go through.

Male Gaze

- The male gaze is how men perceive women through the way they are portrayed through media, and in basic terms the masculine perspective within the world of media. In media, men are sought out to be the more dominant figures as shown in the gaze of women that seems to be more passive and inclined towards someone.

Female Gaze

- The female gaze refers to the perspective of women and how they are shown as independent with their own perspectives and desires with no influence under the presence of a male.

Oppositional Gaze

- Describes the gaze upon races and their reputation which is marginalized.

Muse: Mickalene Thomas

- "By selecting women of color, I am quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation,"