The third essay of John Berger’s seminal collection Ways of Seeing explains the divided psyche of women as the relationship between the surveyor and the surveyed. Women are constantly aware of their immediate experience, but also of how they are appearing to others during the experience. Berger argues that this formed as a method of survival over the vast course of human history; denied personhood in the way men were, the clearest way to exert control over one’s life was to exert control over their appearance. Woman’s capacity was to be appealing, to be acted upon.
Phrases from Berger’s essay were applied to a two-way mirror. By interacting with the mirror, individuals are forced to consider what they were seeing, as well as their own reflection, forcing the simultaneous understanding of surveyor and surveyed.