Whoops

[aesmael]

    First half of the day visiting family members who have been haunted by a mysteriously hidden orange cat. Second half I was surprised to see vanish while following links from this post.
    There are a couple of things not directly linked from that post that I wish to highlight (the two scans links which are linked are definitely worth a look too). First, this post by Eric Burns|Websnark suggesting a month in which the sexes of characters in comic books are reversed but the characters are otherwise portrayed identically as way to illustrate the rather large degree of sexism present.
    Second, a post in which makesmewannadie quotes extensively from chapter 3 of John Berger's Ways of Seeing concerning nudes, being naked and the way men and women are seen (oh look, the title relates!), especially in art.

To be naked is to be oneself.
To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized as oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude (The sight of it and an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display.
To be naked is to be without disguise.
To be on display is to have the surface of one's own skin, the hairs of one's own body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress.

    And from earlier: To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men. The social presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage in such a limited space. But this has been at the cost of a woman's self being split into two. A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whist she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.

    So far the only firm conclusion I have reached is I want a copy of this book to read and study at leisure. I wish I knew more about art history. Perhaps this is where I start learning.

    Let it be noted the pieces I am linking to are nearly a year old.

    On the writing front, last week was a great disappointment. Only 53 words last night and 772 for the week total. Not where I want to be. Blame but not excuse is attached to the assessment heavy nature of the past week.

21,113 + 772 (3.7% more)

    I am debating if I should raise my daily word count next month. If I can not consistently meet my target for this month there seems little benefit to raising it still higher. So far however, with a total of 4875 words and a daily average of 180.556 it seems I am not so far behind as I feel. It may be possible to make this up.

Comments

[coniferous_you]

But this has been at the cost of a woman's self being split into two. A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whist she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.

Emphatically yes!

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

I survey myself continually too :(

*hugs*

You should raise your daily happiness quotient next month :)

[norah.livejournal.com]

Stalking myself on Google...that is actually the ENTIRETY of Ch. 3, and the rest of the book is far less relevant to gender discussion, so you may or may not want to actually procure a copy. Just FYI. Glad you enjoyed it, though!

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

Fear not, I did not expect the majority of the book to be gender relevant. It did work just as the label advertised though and show me new ways of seeing, so for that I am very interested.

*also stalks self on Google*