WAYS OF SEEING II

Ways of Seeing by John Berger taught me to question more what it is that we see . . . . . 

What does this picture below tell us?

What is happening here?

Does it change with knowledge?

Could it perhaps be a daughter and father affectionately kissing on the steps of some communal building perhaps? 

Would that make it adorable? Amusing perhaps? Are they perhaps reunited after some drama or period of separation? 

All these thoughts hurtled through my mind before I considered what my eyes were actually telling me . . .   . . . .

Well would what we feel change if we learned this was a picture taken at the marriage of these two?

Where could this be so? 

How old is the young woman?

Is she a midget? Hah! Could that be true? Or Is she a child? 

Would that change our perception of what is shown?

Does a cultural influence affect what we see?

 The actual caption reads thus:

"Homer Peel kisses his 12-year-old bride Geneva on the courthouse steps. Madinsonville, Tennessee, USA - June 25 1937."

Now how do you feel about this picture?

Horrified? Disgusted, or appalled? Does it make you feel sick? It did me! 

For a moment I thought the world had gone mad, stark staring crazy. From a country where Jerry Lee Lewis married his under age (13!) first cousin once removed (she was Jerry's third wife and may bigamously married Jerry as he hadn't yet divorced his second wife. He was 21. He married his first wife when he was 14) and Elvis Presley first got together with the girl who he would marry when she was only 14.  He was not her first. 

What is portrayed here was legal (presumably) in Tennessee and it was entirely culturally acceptable for this married couple to do this in one of the most advanced sophisticated and highly developed countries in the world which through power has sought to establish itself as the political and moral arbiter for the planet setting the standards for everyone else.

Fascinating huh?