"Looking at Women" Allie, Isabella, Colin, Charolette

[Allie Giove]

"Looking at Women" By Scott Russel Sanders

[Allie Giove]

I think the introduction begins when Sanders and his friend Norman
watch the 14 year old girl cross the street. I think it ends when he
says that he is now married and has 2 children. I believe this because
the beginning of the story, when he flashes back to that july
afternoon, it was his first real encounter of analyzing the way a girl
looks. When the introduction ends, when he tells the reader he is
married and has children, he asks the question, "How should a man look
at woman?" This is in the last paragraph on page 295. It is the first
sentence which is not normal structure for a thesis. The thesis is
usually at the end of the first paragraph but in this case it is
different. I know this is the thesis because the rest of the story
will revolve around this question, "How should a man look at woman?"

[Allie Giove]

Quarreling: An angry dispute; an altercation. A cause of a dispute or
an argument.

"Norman's telling me to relish the sight of females and his mother's
telling me to keep my eyes to myself are only two of the many voices
quarreling in my head" (296).

On Oct 25, 7:56 am, Allie Giove <allie.giove.ber...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Allie Giove]

"What I present here are a few images and reflections that cling, for
me, to this one item in such a compendium of rules: how should a man
look at woman?" (296).

On Oct 25, 7:56 am, Allie Giove <allie.giove.ber...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Allie Giove]

A connection I can make to the reading is when Sanders first saw the
pictures of the playboy girls on his roomate's wall. He never saw
these images before and had no idea what to think of it all. I can
connect to this because I know what it is like to see something for
the first time and not know what to think of it. In 6th grade on the
bathroom walls there used to be writing in black sharpie on all the
stalls. When I first saw these nasty comments I had no idea what to
think of them. I wondered to myself "how could someone write this?"
Even though it isn't the same situation, I know the feeling of seeing
something for the first time and not knowing what to think. These
connections can help a reader understand Sander's point better because
they know what it feels like to be in the situation and they can get a
better knowledge of what he is trying to say.

On Oct 25, 7:56 am, Allie Giove <allie.giove.ber...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Isabella Cialfi]

I thought that the introduction began when the main character and his friend stare and start talking about the girl who was crossing the street. Then I think it ends when Sanders says, "Now, thirty years away from that July afternoon...". I think that because that shows that the event of the girl crossing the street was a memory he had of the past and it wasn't actually happening at that moment. I also think that that was the first time that he ever questioned if the way men look at women is right. That leads to what I think the thesis of the story is, "How should a man look at women?" I agree with Allie that the whole story is going to revolve around the question, so that is why it is the thesis.

[Isabella Cialfi]

Word I am unfamiliar with:

Impregnable: Unable to be defeated or destroyed; unassailable.

"Free of sweat and scars and imperfections, sensual without being fertile, tempting yet impregnable"(297).

[Isabella Cialfi]

One of Sanders direct questions:

"Why, I wondered then and wonder still, do so many women decorate themselves like dolls? And does that mean they wish to be viewed as dolls?" (299)

[Isabella Cialfi]

I can make a connection to the beginning of Sanders story when the two boys were staring at the girl crossing the street. One time my two cousins who were 10 and 11 at the time were at the beach with me and there were a lot of girls in bikinis. They stared at them like they have never seen a girl in their life before. Sanders and his friend Norman were doing the same exact thing that my cousins were doing at the beach. I think that they did that just out of curiousity because they were young. This connection and connections like this can allow the reader to better understand Sanders point because then they get why the boys were doing that and help the reader answer questions better.

[Charlotte Cichowski]

Like Allie stated previously, I also believe that the introduction goes from the beginning of the novel to the line where the narrator says that he is a forty year old father of two. This statement is then followed by the question "How Should A Man Look at a Woman?" on page 295. I would consider this the thesis statement of this essay. Although this isn't the typical structure of a thesis statement the following five pages of the essay constantly relate back to this question. For example, the narrator discusses his college roommate's playboy posters and the difference between the way he looks at them and how the other immature boys in the dorm speak of them. This is one of many examples in this novel that prove that the sentence, "How Should A Man Look at a Woman?". is definitely the thesis of this essay.

[Allie Giove]

Personally, I think that the answer to this question depends on the
person you are asking. Women dress very differently but some of them
do dress up as though they are dolls. I think women do this to express
who they are or who they want to be and are showing their true femine
side. I think women want to be viewed as perfect and flawless which
could relate to dolls. It depends highly on the person you are asking
this question to and what women you are looking at.

On Oct 25, 7:06 pm, Isabella Cialfi

[Collin Brown]

A word that I didn't understand the meaning of was Neurotically

 

Neurotically: 1)of, of pertaining to, or characteristics of neurosis

                   2)a neurotic person

[Collin Brown]

I believe that the introduction ends on page 296 when Sanders says "...how should a man look at women?"(296). I believe that this is the end of the introduction because he wraps up his thoughts in his intro story of himself and his mom.

[Collin Brown]

One of his direct questions is "How should a man look at women?"(296)

[Collin Brown]

I believe that his main point is that everyone will experience things for a first time at different times of their lives. I personally got to experience traveling in an airplane when I was 8 or 9. That was different from my sister who experienced it when she was 6 or 7. That is just one of my many examples that I could show to relate to his main point.

[Collin Brown]

To answer your question, I believe that a man should look at a women with respect. I believe that he should look a her with and respect that she took some time to look the way she does. She tried her best to look a certain way that day, so he should respect the time and effort that she used.

[Isabella Cialfi]

To answer your question, "How should a man look at women?", I think that they should look at them with respect. Sometimes if I see a man looking at a women, he looks at her like he is superior to her. That would most likely make the women mad so they should look at her with respect, and not as if they were superior to her.

[Charlotte Cichowski]

One word I was unfamiliar with while reading was subsequent. I came across this word in the line "I never quite shook that first impression, even after I had inspected the pinups at my leisure on subsequent days" (Sanders 294).

Subsequent - following in time, order, or place

[Charlotte Cichowski]

Question -

"Perfume, eye shadow, uplift bras (about which i learned in the Sears catalog), curled hair, stockings, jewelry, lipstick, lace-what were these if not hooks thrown out into male waters?" (Sanders 298)

[Charlotte Cichowski]

I think one personal story that Sanders talks about that can relate to many other situations is when he first sees the girl in the pink shorts. This scene and how Sanders describes her body reminds me of so many movies where they show the main actress walking towards the camera often in slow motion to music with her hair flowing and the voice of the male actor describing her looks. This connection should portray to readers that Sanders as an 11 year old boy was discovering a new way of looking at women, which is mainly for their appearance. This relates back to the main question Sanders repeatedly asks throughout the essay "How should a man look at a woman?" (Sanders 296). I think it shows that Sanders point is that even at a young age men often look at women differently depending on their appearance.

[Collin Brown]

The link to my source is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschylus
The page where my individual could be found on page 297. "I would lie there on my bunk pondering calculus or Aeschylus..."(297). I believe that Sanders makes a reference to this person was to relate back to how Aeschylus was able to change they way a tragedy play was created. When Aeschylus was around, he was able to change the amount of people in a play from seven to a greater number to show how conflict always arises in peoples lives. This relates back to Sanders example because he is trying to do his work but there is always something that happens in the dorm that causes him to have to change the way he will accomplish his certain tasks.

[Charlotte Cichowski]

I believe that "so many women decorate themselves like dolls" (Sanders 299) out of pure personal expression. This does not mean that they always wish to be viewed as dolls but as individuals instead. Now this is not true for all women. Some do dress certain ways in order to be viewed in ways that will cause people to form opinions going by the woman's appearance. This statement however, does not stand for all women.

[Charlotte Cichowski]

One individual that Sanders references is William Carlos Williams. Williams was both a poet and a doctor in 1900s. Sanders makes reference to William Carlos Williams on page 298 with the statements "I am extremely sexual in my desires: I carry them everywhere and at all times" and "I think that from that arises the drive which empowers us all. Given that drive, a man does with it what his mind directs. In the manner in which he directs that power lies his secret". I think Sanders uses these quotes
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/119

[Charlotte Cichowski]

to possibly relate Williams' thoughts to the rest of the male population. I think Williams' may be portraying the message that despite the intense drive put on men by the female population, it is their choice if they chose to control it and how he handles it shows that man's character.

[Charlotte Cichowski]

I think the final conclusion that Sanders wanted to share when he wrote this essay was that everything we do has an effect on other people, but in the end we are somewhat equal. For example, towards the end of the essay he discusses in extreme detail how the way women dress or do their make up effects a man's inner feelings. He reveals that a man often looks at a woman as a "thing" in order to make themselves feel superior and in control of that individual. On the contrary, the women that turn themselves into "things" have control over those men because they cause the men that look at them to have a slight loss of self control, leading them on what the author describes as "the panting chase"(Sanders 302). The author's tone helped portray his point towards the end of the essay. It tended to change with the discussion topic he was writing about. For example when speaking about how women effect men he sounded disgusted and vulnerable. Then when he transitioned into talking about how men treat women poorly because of this, he seemed angry and disturbed. Then as the essay concluded, although he was still talking about the effect women have on men such as himself, he sounded somewhat content and serene. This might have been because he was discussing how these topics related to his own life. I believe that Sanders tone made the ending of this essay very interesting for me as a reader.

[Isabella Cialfi]

The person I researched is Simone de Beauvoir. She is a french existentialist philosopher, social theorist, and public intellectual. I think that Sanders included her piece in his to show from a woman's point of view. At a part of the story, he mentions that some men tend to look at women like they are objects, but this piece shows that doesn't mean when men look at a women that they always look at her like that. On page 299, that is what Simone de Beauvoir is saying.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/beauvoir/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir

[Isabella Cialfi]

I think that the final conclusion that Sanders wanted to share when he wrote this essay was how women are discriminated. I came to this conclusion because he had a serious tone and he used many examples from his personal experiences in his life. His structure supports this because he had paragraphs about examples from his personal life on how woman are sometimes treated like objects, and then he supported those examples by explaining them. Also, his tone of being serious made the reader feel sort of guilty - particularly if it was a male reader. I think this because they may have been guilty of doing the examples he shared, like how he and his friend were staring at that girl. Generally, I think that the main point he wrote this was to point out to people and make them question if men look at women the right way.

[Collin Brown]

I believe that Sanders' final conclusion is that women should be looked at based on how they present themselves. His last line states "I must prepare a gaze that is worthy of their splendor."(304) This shows that he believes that all women should know what message they are going to get across because they are "preparing" their look that is going to be presented to their peers.