In the world of men and women

Week two- Seeing and Perception


What is perception and why is it different from seeing?

Our eyes see, but our brains perceive. If we all look at one particular person, I am sure that what all of us see will be of the same image. However, what we perceive of that particular person is different. For this week's post, we are going to talk about perception, that is affected by social and cultural knowledge. According to the Free Dictionary, perception is the recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory. Lots of different variables, like changing context and cultural expectations can influence the accuracy of our visual perception, leading to misleading interpretations of images, as seen with visual illusions and ambiguous stimuli (Brainskills,2010).

Look at this particular image for instance, is this really achievable? Can we really make this so-called impossible triangle? 

Our perceptions can be fooled. People see a lot of buildings or different types of structures from the day they were born. This has resulted people to see things for granted. We all know how buildings suppose to look like but we never questioned indeed. From the image, we knew that the triangle is just impossible but we did “see” that the impossible triangle turns out to be possible and how is that even possible? This is one of the visual illusions that fooled our perception so that the impossible triangle seems to be possible.

Perception must have social and cultural knowledge.

Look at the image on the left, most people would say that he is a womanizer.

Now, look at the image on the right, and this time, most people would say that she is a slut!

Why is this so? We are constantly being bombarded by images or ideas from television that men are wild, strong and of higher status and power where as women are supposed to be gentle, soft and preferable muted. Look at Superman, Batman, Spiderman, who is the main character? And who is the one that always cry for help? According to Julia (1997), there are 22 gender-related words to label men who are sexually loose- playboy, stud, rake, gigolo, player, womanizer and so on. There are 200 words that label sexually loose women- slut, whore, prostitute, hooker, easy lay, bitch, concubine and so on (p.7). Who is the one that create all those words for women? The husband should earn higher salary than the wife. Why should a woman have a lower status than a man? We never questioned why because this has already become an ideology, which is shaped by unconscious perception.

Most people would prefer the picture on the right, and might also think that the picture on the left is very weird. The boyfriend cannot be shorter than the girlfriend? The fact is that, who are we to say which is right and which is wrong? Who are we to judge if someone else perception is true or false? We may never be able to do that because perception is shaped by our culture and social environment and this boils down to the fact that- different people from different culture will have different perception.

Also, the practices of polygamy are very common in some parts of the world for instance, Egypt, Africa, Thailand and etcetera.

However, polygamy is illegal in countries like Hong Kong, India and some parts of the world.

This has further proved that different culture factors lead to different perception which further lead to different views on politics. According to Jamieson (2007), through culture the world is always shaped or framed in particular ways; the undifferentiated is differentiated, boundaries are created and categories derived. concepts are formed this creating food for thought (p.26).

Extra information:
Do you want to eat this?

Would you even think of eating a monkey’s brain? It is quite a popular dish in the southern China. You would probably think that it's very disgusting and figure how those people swallow this bloody delicacy with no guilt and nausea. According to Medina (2008), Vision rules number ten- visual trumps all senses. We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you'll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%(p.221-240). You would probably be remembering this picture for the rest of your semester.

References:
Brainskills (2010). The facts about brain development and brain training: Visual Perception. Retrieved from http://www.brainskills.co.uk/visual-perception.html
Jamieson, H (2007). The perceptual connection. Visual communication: more than meets the eye (p.26). Bristol: Intellect Books.
Julia, P. S. (1997). Paradigmatic Women: The prostitude. In D.L.Shores and C.P.Hines (Ed.), papers in Language Variation (p.7). University of Alabama: Tuscaloos.
Medina, J. (2008). Vision Rules: Rule#10: Vision trumps all the senses. Brain rules:12 principles for surviving and thirving at work, home and school (pp. 221-240). Seattle: Pear press.
The Free Dictionary (2010). Perception. Retrieved from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Sensory+perception

Images taken from:
http://www.coolopticalillusions.com/build-an-impossible-triangle.htm
http://videogum.com/57771/what_tv_bar_should_the_dude_fr/where-are-they-now/
http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/11/17/gossip-girl-recap-the-third-person-is-always-supposed-to-be-a-stranger/
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/damon-and-elena/images/9084483/title/nina-ian-photo
http://www.wikihow.com/Hug-a-Girl-Who's-Taller-Than-You
http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2009/12/female-polygamy-article-sparks-row-in.html
http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=2398
http://trifter.com/practical-travel/the-eight-most-cruel-and-controversial-world-delicacies/