"The Confident Gaze"

In "The Confident Gaze" by Shekhar Deshpande, he talks about National Geographic Magazine. National Geographic having the 3rd largest subscription in the United States and viewed by a large assortment of people. In the article Deshpande talks largely about how National Geographic takes pictures from many different cultures and is making it so these images are appealing and are ignoring the problems. Deshpande states, "It is slick, it is technically flawless or even adventurous, and its attempt to sanitize and universalize the uncomfortable as well as different elements of other culture"(par.7). Deshpande is saying that National Geographic is showing elements of other cultures that have been cleaned up and made flawless to a degree that the real problem is no longer there. Deshpande also states, "[w]hile we admire the accomplishments of its photographers to bring us the rest of the world, we forget that the photographs and the contexts in which they are placed represent a very conscious effort by the editors to make the world a happy place and a happy place especially for the Western eye"(par.8). Deshpande is trying to say that those who view and admire the great pictures forget that the editor have worked hard to make it an appealing picture to view and putting low regard to the real issue. "It is as if that world needs to be posed in the appropriate way to the Western observer, he could not see it in its bare essentialities"(Par.12). He is stating that the images that are taken of the world need to be posed in an "appropriate way," I feel that when he is saying this he feels that the images of the world need to be happy and pretty to look at even if they dont show the real matters and are neglecting the real issues of those countries.