1. John Berger in “Ways of Seeing”, distinguishes “nakedness” from “nudity” in the European tradition, with nakedness simply being the state of having no cloths on and nudity being a form of artistic representation. Berger mentioned in the video that, “Being naked is just being yourself but being nude in the artistic sense of the word is being without cloths for the purpose of being looked at. A naked body has to become an object of a gaze in order to become a nude representation.” Being naked means being without any costume that you put on but being nude means that you become your own costume. Women are there for men to look at, “men act and women appear.” While men do the looking, women watch themselves being looked at. What’s more, he mentioned that women should take care of every action she does because women’s actions are the ways that indicates the way the girl should be observed. On the other hand, men’s actions are not judged by people as women. He won’t even have a bad reputation as a woman can does.
2. Berger was discussing the difference between male and female presence. A man’s presence dependents on what he is capable of doing to you or for you. It depends on his power. If the promise is large and credible his presence is striking. If it is small or incredible, he is found to have little presence. On the other hand, a woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in voice, opinions, clothes, friends. John Berger explains the process: To be born a woman is so hard as women are not free to do whatever they want due to the society and how they are going to be in people’s eyes. She has a limited space. She always has to explain everything to everybody if she did something wrong because how she appears to others, and importantly how she appears to men. Society today even creates this image that men have more power over women, and when the roles are reversed, as displayed in the male nude advertisements, it causes public outrage. It’s true that male nudity is getting the new presence in the modern society and is becoming increasingly more normal, however, one can still assume a few reasons as to why there was an opposition to display of the naked men on the posters. Men also don’t want to be seen as having less power and vulnerability. Female nudity is associated with beauty and erotic. It’s meant to be unthreatening. Male nudity is much more challenging. Society in general is uncomfortable with seeing it in public. At the end, nudity is still not totally accepted.
3. The male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world from a masculine perspective that sees women as a sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer. John Berger observed that “men act and women appear.” Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Mirror was often used as a symbol of the vanity of woman. You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity. Therefore, you had depicted for your own pleasure. The real function is to make the woman treat herself. 

Discussion 1 :

According to Berger , there is distinction  between nakedness  and the  nude female form as it traditionally represented in western art.He pointed out then that in nude book of Clark, He  defines nakedness  as :  a person “women or men  ” who’s standing  without clothes on her/him  and nudity is a form of art .But for Berger , To be naked , is to be yourself and to be nude is to be seeing naked by others and not recognise for ourself. He then adds saying a nude need has to be seeing as an  object in order to be a nude. And that’s fact while looking at yourself naked does disturb as when others are looking at you naked .When you really display your nakedness, that gives people opportunity to judge , critic , or some even enjoying it when they are looking at .Yes it does apply on images that I have encountered in my experience . when I’m looking at myself I don’t have problem with that but when I am looking to some graphic of people I have that sensation  that I want to be like them . maybe they big muscle than I have .

Discussion 2:

According to Berger , western works of art have depicted and defined in different roles for men and women because men looked at women and women watch  themselves to be looked at .for example when a couple want to go out of dinner , the man takes a shot time to be prepared while the  woman has a lot to do and takes long to get it done .Women really care of how people will look at them once they are out in public .And even before they go out they predict of how they should look .Yes these depictions influence the ways we think of the differences between men’s and women’s roles in society today . I even wander if that is not the root of the inequality of gender ?

Discusion 3:

Berger describes the significance of the mirror in painting depicting women as men hypocrisy while they drawing a naked woman , enjoying looking at her and  been blamed  by viewers Everybody look at her naked  , and make their judgments on her .The ways beauty is defined in these painting is to be naked and being admired by the viewers . Female are as a site that people come to visit and being available to the spectator.He said displaying women nakedness they look like the expressing the body language  which seems like when you look at her  it is like she looked at you back and knows she doesn’t know you . The kind of more contemporary examples he relate this to for me is how women dress on stage when they want perform .and the connection is They really know that they displaying their body and want people to look at it .

Women were a constant recurring plot in European oil painting. Adam and Eve were the first nudes. Their nakedness represented shame. Over time, these conventions have changed and nakedness of Adam and Eve transformed into a kind of game with the audience. According to Berger, nakedness and nude are completely different concepts. To be naked means to be yourself, without any mask. At the same time, nude is to expose oneself to the viewer, i.e. permission to see yourself naked. I had my own experience working with nude, but not as a model, but as a painter. I was a student at the University of Architecture in my hometown. After graduation, I professionally worked as a photographer. In both cases, I had to work with nudity. At the university, we often painted the naked bodies of antique statues. However, later working as a photographer I often received orders for a nude-style photo session.

From the time of Adam and Eve, a woman was punished and subjugated to a man, and a man became a representative of God. Men and women in the works of European art had different positions. A man took the place of the beholder, being an artist or owner of a nude painting. However, the woman was an object that the man was looking at, in other words, the woman was a sight to behold. Currently, the roles of women and men are rapidly changing, equalizing the positions of both sexes in society. European works of art are simply a reminder to women that they are no longer just a thing in the eyes of men. At the same time, women understand the power of their charm and beauty.

Another equally important subject that is present in the works of European art is a mirror. According to Berger, a mirror in oil painting is a kind of approval of a woman to see her naked. Berger also says that the mirror in the hands of women was most often symbolized as female vanity. However, the author himself considers this hypocrisy by the artist: the artist first gives the woman a mirror and then accuses her of vanity. Berger also notes the look of naked women on the canvases of European art. He claims that women look with charm as if they are looking at a man who possesses her. In modern art, nakedness has become less important. However, women are still portrayed in order to flatter the man to the viewer.