"According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome, the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man. A man’s presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies. If the promise is large and credible his presence is striking. If it is small or incredible, he is found to have little presence. The promised power may be moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social, sexual – but its object is always exterior to the man. A man’s presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. His presence may be fabricated, in the sense that he pretends to be capable of what he is not. But the pretence is always towards a power which he exercises on others. By contrast, 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 her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste – indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence. Presence for a woman is so intrinsic to her person that men tend to think of it as an almost physical emanation, a kind of heat or smell or aura."
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Novelists from EnglandPoets from EnglandArt criticsPolitical authors from EnglandPainters from England
Original Language: English
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Chap. 3
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Berger
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John Berger
John Peter Berger (5 November, 1926 - 2 January, 2017) was an art critic, novelist, painter and author. The best-known among his many works include the novel G., winner of the 1972 Booker Prize, and Ways of Seeing a BBC television series of art criticism and accompanying book.
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