BergerDouglass Rich

             Language and images are usually a way to express what someone is thinking, however, language and images can often restrict our thinking in various ways. Susan Douglas, in her essay ,"Narcissism As Liberation", writes about "the great myth...that superficial appearances can be equated with a person's deepest character strengths and weaknesses"(128). The image of what a "beautiful" and what is not is an image that is constantly restricted in our minds. These restrictions come from television, movies, or many other things that people encounter. John Berger in "Ways of Seeing", proclaims that "men survey woman before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated"(46). This further shows what these restrictions do in our everyday lives. Adrienne Rich in her essay "When We Awaken: Writing As Re-Vision" gives her theories on how to free people from these restrictions mainly through "re-vision".
             One image that is restricted in our minds is the concept of beauty, that is seen in advertising. These
             restriction are put on women. The image of what beauty is, in regard to women, is perpetuated though advertising. Through the advertising and on a larger scale the media, women are told about "perfect faces and bodies, and the psychologically , politically, and economically punitive measures taken against women who fail to be young, thin, and beautiful"(133). They are made to feel inferior if they are not considered attractive, so they feel the need to purchase what is being advertised. Berger agrees that women are often victims of these restriction when he says, "a women's presence...is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinion, expressions, clothes"(46). He believes that women are judged because of this image. This image that today is put on the public by ads that we are subject to wherever we are. It is extremely difficult to break free from our limited thoughts.
             Adrienne Rich also sees th...

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