Over time, feminist art represented a larger interaction between the individual and her work. At this point, the focus of the movement shifted from what characterizes gender to how can women implement a greater, political change to the way they are treated by their partner. Some feminist artists voiced their concerns against what they believed masculinity actually implied: men’s justification for increased violence against their partner (Kosmala 200). For instance, Barbara Kruger became an iconic figure for tackling “the invisibility surrounding regional violence” (Kosmala 200). In her 1991 art installation, “All Violence is an Illustration of a Pathetic Stereotype,” Kruger depicts an unordinary scene (Figure 3). In a large room, white words …show more content…
and black and white images are juxtaposed against a merciless, red background. A child’s screaming face, coupled with the words, “All Violence is The Illustration of a Pathetic Stereotype,” confronts the viewer, instilling them in fear.
Racial and sexual slurs cover every inch of the ground, while disturbing images of men and children ravish the walls beside it. There is no sense of security within this room; instead, guilt and terror capture the viewer, making them feel powerless and weak. Kruger’s installation was meant to evoke fear in men; it forces them to visualize gender inequalities and makes them directly face the horror that women experience. In this manner, Kruger connects these inequalities to violence and shows men the effect that an abusive male has on the female emotionally, mentally, and physically. Ultimately, Kruger’s work, as well as many other feminists’, challenged another concept of domestic violence: the continuation of a man’s power and use of violence in heteronormative constructions (Kosmala …show more content…
200). The continuation of domestic violence is characterized by the persistence and enforcement of patriarchal values. Despite women’s attempt to deconstruct gender roles, the preservation remnants of patriarchal values continue to promote violence. A patriarchy is characterized by the exclusive rule of males; it works to produce the most “fundamental societal organizations” in the world (Kosmala 200). It also lies behind the idea that the “performance of gender makes male power and privilege appear natural rather than socially produced and structured” (Anderson and Umberson 360). In their experiment on the relationship of gender and violence, sociologists Anderson and Umberson analyzed the concept of masculinity and its role in the practice of domestic violence. They concluded that domestic violence is “gendered in its practice” and reflects “hegemonic notions of femininity and masculinity” (Anderson and Umberson 362). This means that traditional practices that emphasize masculine control enforce ideas that use “violence to punish female partners who fail to meet [men’s] unspoken physical, sexual, or emotional needs”. Interestingly, these needs of men work to fulfill social expectations of men as well (Anderson and Umberson 359). Moreover, Anderson and Umberson claim that “gender roles of masculinity and power depict a system, by which men are made to “accomplish [their] gender,” in order to satisfy “normal” standards (Anderson and Umberson 361). Ultimately, what does this revelation on patriarchal values mean to women?
Feminist art brings attention to the “gender norms” that allows for domestic violence to be freely executed and reinforced by men. The awareness of a patriarchy and what society defines as “normal standards” allows women to dig deeper into the issue of domestic violence. It shows them that domestic violence is not only a societal problem, but also a political and structural issue that needs to be re-evaluated for equality. It is debatable whether women can ever “escape” the powers of the patriarchy or gender standards. However, feminist artists work to “challenge its limitations, even its very foundations, through their direct expression of subject hood” (Forte 224). Therefore, feminists, such as Barbara Kruger, are able to target specific characteristics of the system and use art to show the implications of a patriarchy and what changes need to be executed in response to its injustices. Through this method, they are able to deconstruct the patriarchal system step by
step.
Today, if a man hits a woman, he is less of a man and a disgrace, not praised and admired as in the past. Although Janie endures the beatings from her husbands, it is the denial of her self-expression that affects Janie the most; this oppression is nearly unheard of today.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The narrator’s room is furnished with “symbols of restraint” such as, the bed nailed down to the floor, a gate blocking the stairs, and rings in the walls. According to Jeremy MacFarlane’s journal “Enough to make a body riot”: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Chester Himes, and the Process of Socio-spatial Negotiation, all the things in the room normalize the “repression and self-denial” practice for women. And, of course, the yellow wallpaper reinforces a state of “grotesque, idiotic cheerfulness,” which is the key to a woman’s assent in the status quo (MacFarlane, 8-9).
She attempts to address such issues as feminism, social dynamics, and other critical issues. She uses black and white photos overlaid with red coloring for accents (“Barbara Kruger Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.”). The photos are usually cropped, with only part of the photo in her work. For example, she may use a hand, or a face from a picture and then print carefully chosen words on top of it. Her work includes personal pronouns to question who is speaking. These works were further distributed on various material and media, such as T-shirts, posters, postcards, and more (“Barbara Kruger.”
Hunnicutt illustrated that the concept of patriarchy is a useful tool in the theory of feminism. She also made use the concept of patriarchy to show how it can be employed to explain violence against women in society. Hunnicutt’s article presents an alternative way to understand violence against women by employing patriarchy as a core theoretical concept. Hunnicutt believed that in the society, women are typically oppressed and men also have been historically dominant over them, and most times it results to violence against these women. Hunnicutt stated that the theories of violence against women mostly focus on male power but via situating that power within a patriarchal order. This article is important to the topic of feminism because for its theoretical background to help ground my
Renzetti, C. (1999). The challenge to Feminism posed by Women’s use of violence in intimate relationships.
...witty comical banter helps spread the understanding of the underlying themes behind the humor. It makes it easier for the artists to connect with the audience about feminism without an aggressive and hostile approach to the work. I believe viewers are more likely to communicate upon the works of the Guerrilla Girls with one another in society when they take on a more comedic approach. This investigation has examined the Guerrilla Girls through direct connection to the inequalities of compliance of power over women in the art world. Several themes were highlighted within society that reinstated these cultural norms of gender and sex within the institutions of art. With a variety of forms used by the Guerrilla Girls to redefine women's identity in history they were able to break down such barriers that stood in the way which denied the prosperity of female artists.
Feminism and political issues have always been centered on in the art world and artists like to take these ideas and stretch them beyond their true meanings. Female artists such as Hannah Höch, who thrived during the Dada movement in the 1920s in Germany and Barbara Kruger who was most successful during the 1980s to 1990s in the United States, both take these issues and present them in a way that forces the public to think about what they truly mean. Many of Kruger’s works close in on issues such as the female identity and in relation to politics she focuses on consumerism and power. Höch, like Kruger, also focuses on female identity but from the 1920s when feminism was a fairly new concept and like Kruger focuses on politics but focuses more on the issues of her time such as World War I. With the technique of photomontage, these two artists take outside images and put them together in a way that displays their true views on feminism and politics even though both are from different times and parts of the world.
In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient woman, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty, emotionless shell. In men’s eyes, this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
The picture is a scale in which the female side is higher than the male side. Women have always been since as less than a man, an outlook that can be traced all the way back to the bible. According to the bible, Eve was created from Adams rib, which was supposed to be construed as his loving her because she was made of his flesh has been corrupted that women are less than a man. Even the United States, the pioneer of freedom and rights, still pays a woman less than a man. A women’s opinion is still doubted or in some cases not even listened to especially when they hold positions of power. In third world countries, if a woman is attacked or raped it is her fault, just because she is a woman. Infanticide, the killing of female babies, is still predominant in areas all over the world. Mothers rid themselves of girl children so that they don’t have to worry about dishonor or providing a dowry. This killing of females is also represented in the art. This artwork should remain on Tejon Street as a reminder as how far we have come as women and how we have much work ahead of us in order to get true
There is a long history of gender roles in society. The expectations of gender roles continually shift; however, there is not a time when women and men share the same equalities simultaneously. The idea of how men and women should act is instilled in us at a young age. I think it starts really young with girls and boys being told what they can be and when they see what they are expected to be, they abandon parts of them which society deems as undesirable. We don’t acknowledge how much pressure we put on men and women to conform to the ideas of gender roles but it is apparent in our media and in the history of our art. One of the most influential things about figurative art is that it has the ability to capture society’s concepts of how men and women are expected to be during that time period. One thing for certain about gender equality is that it has historically and predominantly been a women’s movement. This sculpture, entitled Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, stood out to me in particular. It is is made of pentelic marble and dates back to the early 5th century. The sculpture shows a woman with a restless face, clothed in a mantle and head piece while holding a scroll. This sculpture reflects the women’s intelligence and capabilities being overshadowed by her gender and
Ultimately, The Gender Knot provides explanations regarding misogynistic practices, and the protagonists of “Girl” and “Mona Lisa Smile” demonstrate how damaging these practices are. The caustic effects of the limitation of female sexuality are observed in the multitude of rules for women in “Girl,” and in the prohibition of birth control in “Mona Lisa Smile.” These two works also provide insights into the ways that gender roles constrict the lives of women. Through Johnson’s theories, one can come to a better
Monique Wittig, a radical feminist, illuminates, “For what makes a woman is a specific social relation to a man, a relation that we call servitude”. The concept of justifying the female inferior image based on biology and the ‘w...
Being a women artist, displaying such an installation was not possible years back. Contrary to the opinions of many students new to the study of feminist literary Criticism, many feminists like men, think that women should be able to stay at home and raise children if they want to do so, and wear bras. Bringing such an art piece, reflection of her inner experiences or having sex in bed after having bad relationship could not be possible before. The main female characters are stereotyped as either “good girls” or “bad girls”. These classifications suggest that if a woman does not admit her male-controlled gender role, then the only role left her is that of a monster. Yet Emin’s confessional art- with its confidences of pregnancy, being raped, destructiveness of guilt, emotional stress- has become much common nowadays with feminist consciousness while in early generation, sharing such experiences lead to the destruction of women’s life. Her unmade bed, surrounded by such bric-bracs tells a story of a depressed, emotionally stressed women artist who asks for a sympathetic shoulder from the viewers by being a transparent soul. “For her British critics it [My Bed] expressed Emin’s sluttish personality and exemplified the detritus of a life quintessentially her own; it was, above all, confessional”, Cherry observes. Emin has limited the word ‘feminist; art practices have been the concerned of an early generation. This point seems to be confirmed by Emin herself, who declares to the discerning nature of her work in which she says that she decides to show either this or that part of the truth, which isn't unavoidably the whole story but it's just what she decides to gives us. As a self-motivated set of influences, feminism no longer titles a unitary or merging project infact it is now being the transformation just as feminist biases are perpetually subject to change. Whereas, looking at Tracey’s other work, Tent “Everyone I Have Ever
Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber,” is a visually intricate and feminist text; this feminism is portrayed through gender roles. The narrator is a young child who transitions into a woman searching for identity, and her husband’s masculine power defines it. In other words, this short story depicts gender roles and personal identity through the use of objectification of women. The deeper meaning behind the roles the men and women have may reflect Carter’s deconstruction of gender norms. The narrator enables the deconstruction by acting as a link; she conjoins two opposing ideas, like masculinity and femininity. These two opposing ideas create the deconstruction of gender norms that Carter elaborates on throughout her short story.
In just a few decades The Women’s Liberation Movement has changed typical gender roles that once were never challenged or questioned. As women, those of us who identified as feminist have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at...