We also discussed about the difference between nude and naked. Naked simply means a lack of clothing. Being naked is to be bare from head to toe, to openly show one’s body without mask. On the other hand, nude, while being naked, gives the impression that one person is clothed. His/her nakedness has turned into a mask. The flesh, the tresses, and the contours of one’s body is presented fully and seen as an object, an object of desire.




On all the paintings showed by our mentor, the Judgment of Paris is one of the paintings that captured my attention. Although this painting connotes a negative feeling for me, I’d still say that it is one of the striking paintings that I saw. It looked beautiful. However, its message, rather, its story didn’t make me feel good as a woman. Who would want to be judged by men based only on their physical appearance? Oh, maybe other women would but I certainly would not condone it. The painting only shows that most (most but not all) men are very superficial.

Anyway, the intention of the painters who follows the western tradition of nudes doesn’t appeal to me at all. They imply that women are mere objects to be fantasized and be desired to. They think lowly of women and the women’s capabilities. To them, women are objects and thus can only be useful to pleasure them. Even the way people view women that time are degrading. Everything that a woman does is a reflection of her persona. Unlike men, they can easily attribute their actions to their mood and not to their personality. No wonder most women nowadays feel so insecure and apprehensive.

In the Eastern Tradition nudes, I particularly like the picture of Vishnu and Lakshmi that was presented in class. However, the image of Lakshmi as “flirtatious” irked me somehow because I don’t like overly flirtatious women. But still, the thought that the eastern paintings portray love and equality made me look optimistic compared to indifferent paintings in the Western tradition.






Western tradition of nudes exudes a feeling of ownership. The women in the paintings are viewed as an object. At the same they (women) are aware of their spectators. Eastern tradition of nudes on the other hand, portrays love and equality between men and women. The paintings show active participation of both parties in expressing their sexual desire and love to one another.

This week, we were tasked to do our own interpretation of “The Mona Lisa”. This should be done in groups of two or three. So, of course, I’m grouped with my ever so loyal block mates, Talitha and Carl. =) The three of us have always been group mates in every one of our classes, may it be a lecture class or a laboratory class. So I think, we would probably be group mates till’ the end – even in our thesis.

Anyway, right after Ms. Jewel told us of our creative project, we’ve been brainstorming on what we are supposed to do. We basically decided to focus on Mona Lisa’s feminine side. Therefore, we chose the products that will embody her femininity. Thus, we ended up with feminine wash and sanitary napkins. Why these products? - Well, we decided to select this product because it can relate to every woman in this world.

We named the products as “Babae”, because we wanted to cater the Filipino society. Not only that, we also want to familiarize the “common people” on the persona of Mona Lisa. Since not every Filipino, especially the poor ones, know who she is, or rather, know about the sitter in the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci.

In this activity, we basically showed that art can be used as a business strategy. Art can serve as the “attention-grabber” for the costumers. Just like what the class did the Mona Shampoo, Colegate, and (Mona Lisa) Boxer shorts.

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