Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Objection, please.

Reading Looking At Women by Scott Sanders is a deep analytical, Cause And Effect essay about how men look at woman or as the author puts it, " How should a man look at women?". The author gets his points across points across by giving us examples of women in culture. He uses franchise names such as Playboy, Miss America pageant, Greek Goddesses, famous erotic novelists, paintings and so on. Each example gives us a better view at the points he's making. Let's take for example the Greek Goddesses. Sanders writes that women arouse the interest of men in the way they dress. He gives the example of a goddess lolling around in her long white, chiton gown. It's man-like, he justifies for men to notice the beauty because she's just there for everyone to see. This is how much of the essay is formulated. Question, answer and explanation. The most important part of this essay is the question itself, “How should men look at women?”. He goes by answering this question by getting into his male persona, and others. Yes, all men ogle at woman for one reason and another but it's not always to make them feel uncomfortable though for most of human history, it can't be said the same. Women were built differently, shaped to be beautiful that any man would want to take back home. Even the most novel of men who are not “lusting” have thoughts of looking at women. It's all genetics he resolves to at the end.

Overall, the concept of men looking at women is a topic many will have different positions on. Sanders gives his own perspective and reasoning behind this. He also gives a minor perspective how women feel when thousands of men look at them. They become an object not a person. It can almost relate to slavery. Men objectify women and it might be on purpose but anatomy does not allow men to not notice.

The Norton reader: an anthology of nonfiction prose

Linda H.Peterson - John C.Brereton - Joan Hartman - W.W. Norton - 2000


1 comment:

  1. I like the way you give textual evidence on how Sander Proves his points, and what you saw that Sander was trying to say. I believe you did a great job in analyzing.

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