Betye Saars Liberation of Aunt Jemima Betye Saar Also known as the woman who made a tougher Aunt Jemima, was born July 30, 1926 in Los Angeles, California. She is still alive and is currently 88 years old. Saar started college at Pasadena City College, she got her degree in design from university of California in 1949, she also studied print making. After she graduated college in 1949 she worked as a social worker. Saar’s art work addressed American racism and stereotypes. Head on, typically of the assemblage format. (“Saar” 2015). During the 1970’s Saar was a part of the black arts movement, she was also into the black power movement as well. Her plan was to change the negative views of African Americans. Betye Saar’s art is based on random …show more content…
found objects that she assembles together, she also collected racial caricatures. Most of her work is assembled pieces. Her most popular assemblage piece is called “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” created in 1972. It is her signature piece and her first protest piece. The liberation of Aunt Jemma is an assemblage piece made to make people view African Americans differently, and to take them more seriously. The Liberation of Aunt Jemima is a really popular piece “The piece is based on a pair of found objects.
A 1930s plastic “mammy” memo and a pencil holder, that Saar purchased at a rummage sale, and a small image of a smiling mammy holding a squirming and screaming white child.” (Lipsitz 2011) A description of the piece is of the mammy doll wearing a red dress with blue and yellow flowers on it, standing in front of Aunt Jemima syrup labels. The mammy doll is holding a broom in her right hand, and a pistol under her right arm and a rifle in her left hand. In front of the mammy doll is a postcard of a smiling mammy caricature holding a crying white baby. In front of the post card is a clenched black fist symbolizing black power and also creating a silhouette and at her feet is raw …show more content…
cotton. “Betye Saar created one of the most widely known works in this tradition in 1972.” (Von Blum 2012) Saar collected a lot of racial caricatures for her art.
“She found imaginative ways to integrate such images as Aunt Jemimas, “Picanninnes”, grinning “darkies”, and watermelon into her work. In the process she managed to express her personal pain and rage while simultaneously transferring racist caricatures into symbols of racial liberation.”(Von Blum 2012). “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972) focuses on the task performed by domestic workers. “For years I have collected vintage wash boards,” she relates “and to me they symbolize hard labor. By recycling them I am honoring the memory of that labor and the working woman upon whose shoulders we now stand.””(Lipsitz 2011) Betye Saar wanted to change the mind of stereotypes. And give the racial caricature power. She wanted to change the meaning behind the caricatures; she wanted them to be
respected. Everything in the piece the liberation of Aunt Jemima symbolizes something. Her mammy pencil holder represents African American women in slavery, and how the white man created cartoons to perceive them as happy and content with being slaves. As women who were just willing to raise another woman’s child. She also represented the hard labor that women go through, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children etc. Saar’s piece symbolizes empowerment, respect, and giving the mammy power of freedom. She gave the mammy a voice by giving her the guns. The raw cotton at the bottom of the piece symbolizes slavery in general. But she was you to remember that not only did they have to cook and clean they also have to pick cotton too. The clenched hand symbolizes the black movement. Also the way its position it look as if it the silhouette of the women holding the screaming child. The silhouette symbolizes some femininity to the mammy, because they made the mammy big and unattractive. Although “Betye Saar is of Irish, Native American, French, and African American Heritages; in her art she identifies mostly with her black roots.” (Castro 2012). one believes that her Art work is directed to the white man responsible for the caricatures in Saar work she says “created art not for elite audience but for everyday people.” (Willette 1997) she wanted regular people to see her work and be able to relate to it.
Did you know that in 1960, Betye Saar collected pictures of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom, and Little Black Sambo including other African American figures in areas that are also invalid with folk culture and advertising? Since, Saar collected pictures from the folk cultures and advertising she also makes many collages including assemblages, changing these into social protest statements. When her great-aunt passed away, Saar started assembling and collecting memorabilia from her family and created her personal assemblages which she gathered from nostalgic mementos of her great aunt’s life.
As people live to this day’s constant demands, they often mention how their lives are ‘horrible’, but no life can be more horrific than just one day in the groove of Wanda Bridgeforth’s life growing up during the 1930’s. Wanda Bridgeforth was a survivor of The Great Depression, and she has quite a story to tell. Surely, she can relate to someone like Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, although her skin is a different shade. Wanda would had never known what it was like to grow up as an African American if she didn’t primarily reside in what was known as the ‘Black Metropolis’, if she didn’t have major money shortages in her family, if she didn’t live in a constantly cramped housing space, or if she wasn’t transported away to live with a whole different group of people.
The two works of literature nudging at the idea of women and their roles as domestic laborers were the works of Zora Neale Hurston in her short story “Sweat”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Whatever the setting may be, whether it is the 1920’s with a woman putting her blood, sweat and tears into her job to provide for herself and her husband, or the 1890’s where a new mother is forced to stay at home and not express herself to her full potential, women have been forced into these boxes of what is and is not acceptable to do as a woman working or living at home. “Sweat” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” draw attention to suppressing a woman’s freedom to work along with suppressing a woman’s freedom to act upon her
Art could be displayed in many different forms; through photography, zines, poetry, or even a scrapbook. There are many inspirational women artists throughout history, including famous women artists such Artemisia Gentileschi and Georgia O’Keeffe. When searching for famous female artists that stood out to me, I found Frida Kahlo, and Barbara Kruger. Two very contrasting type of artists, though both extremely artistic. Both of these artists are known to be feminists, and displayed their issues through painting and photography. Frida Kahlo and Barbara Kruger’s social and historical significance will be discussed.
Many books demonstrate racial and sexist motifs, but the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett, makes readers view the perspective of both black and white woman in situations that the world should not have ever been through. One event, in particular, is when one of the main characters Aibileen, a black maid for Leefolt family, was babysitting Mae Mobley and her mother yells at Mae for using Aibileen's “colored” bathroom, “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white child's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites” (Stockett 95). This text teaches the world about the upsetting perspective of segregation, it makes people realize children are not inherently racist. It comes from the judgment and knowledge in education and family beliefs which are developed at a young age. Stockett makes one realize that people need to help develop a good judgment upon young ones so they can make smart decisions when they are older and be more accepting towards different people in society. Reading this text helps others recognize that racism is a difficult topic to approach but putting
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
This paper primarily looks to focus on Mrs. Brewer’s private life as a mother and the emotional work she underwent within the home. Additionally, this paper will discuss how the emotional work of Pearl was the cause of the physical wear and tear on her body, or the embodiment of stress. First, I will present a descriptive profile of Pearl Brewer. Next, I will provide a brief methodological section. Then, I will discuss motherhood as a private aspect of life and source of stress for women. In this section, I will discuss how Pearl’s roles as mother, sole breadwinner, and wife combine within this aspect of private life to fit within the stereotypical description of the Strong Black Woman/Superwoman myth, and how, more importantly, emotional work required to uphold the role of superwoman has contributed to the “weathering” of Pearl’s physical b...
This investigation will examine a few key works by the anonymous female artist group know in popular culture as the Guerrilla Girls. In this essay it will reveal several prominent themes within the groups works that uncover the racial and gender inequalities in politics, art and pop culture with the use of humor. These collaborating artists work and operate with a variety of mediums, their works display a strong message concerned with activism connected by humor allowing the Guerrilla Girls to communicate and resonate a more powerful message to the viewer. The ways in which this collaborating group has employed many questions and facts against the hierarchy and historical ideologies which have exploited women and their roles in art. This investigation will allow the reader to identify three areas in which the Guerrilla Girls apply a certain forms of humor to transform society’s view on the prominent issue of gender in the art world. These specific ploys that are performed by the Guerrilla Girls are in the way they dress, the masks they wear, pseudonymous names of dead women artists and the witty factual evidence in their works. These are all examples to evoke audiences in challenging not only the art society which dictates the value and worth of women in art but also to confront yourself and your own beliefs in a way that makes audiences rethink these growing issues.
Even as a child, Thelma Lucille Sayles, or Lucille Clifton, realized how notable African Americans were. However, throughout her lifetime, Clifton has encountered discrimination against her race on multiple occasions, but her poetry, for both adults and children, show resilience against any racist remarks made. With a heavy influence from growing up in an African-American household and experiencing the Civil Rights Movement, Lucille Clifton’s writings focus on the importance of African Americans, especially women, in communities (Hine 1-3).
Sometimes referred to as “the artistic sister of the Black Power Movement” the Black Arts Movement (BAM) arose in the mid 1960’s to develop a poetic/artistic statement that not only provided a means of black existence in America, but also provided a “change of vision” in the perception of African American identity. Much like the New Negro Movement, the Black Arts Movement was a flourishing time of artistic exertion among African American musicians, poets, playwrights, writers, and visual artists who understood that their artistic production could be the key to revising stereotypes of African American subordinacy (Neal). Through looking at the enriching artworks by David Hammons, Jeff Donaldson, and Adrian Piper, it can be understood that the African American race strived for both racial equality and social change. Hammons, Donaldson, and Piper were unique artist who changed African American Art and captivated America through their exceptional styles of talent and artworks. While the artworks Spade (Power to the Spade) by David Hammons, Wives of Shango by Jeff Donaldson, and Adrian Piper’s advertisement in Village Voice share few commonalities such as similar subject matter, such as their strive for black power, and imagery, their differences in mediums, structural styles, and technique show differentiating aspects of each artworks physique.
The purpose of this essay is to connect the feminist theory to the film “The Help,” and underlie certain ideas that are demonstrated throughout the film. I specifically chose this film, because it takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 19060s during the time Jim Crow laws were still very much alive, and practiced. Skeeter, a young white Caucasian woman has just graduated and returned home from attending Ole Miss to take care of her fairly sick mother. Aside from her associates and colleagues, who are more into finding a husband on their time off from Ole Miss, Skeeter focuses all of her time into becoming a journalist. Throughout the film family servants are well within each white family social circle, they are referred to as “The Help,” and are exclusively black women. As tradition the servants are passed down throughout family generations, which means the child they raised would become their boss in the future. Each servant had their own story to tell and conflicts of their own to deal with, including Skeeter. As time progresses Skeeter decides to write a column on the black servants in relation to their white bosses, with the help of her fifty-year-old servant Aibileen Clark. Hesitant to help, Aibleen along with other black servants gather to tell their different stories while accepting the consequences it will bring. As a feminist, it is one who supports feminism, which is the advocacy of women’s right on the grounds of politics, social, and equality to men, but in this case white women as well. Throughout the essay are explorations of the different issues relevant to feminism.
The movie, “Mona Lisa Smile” is an inspirational film that explores life through feminism, marriage, and education lead by a modernist teacher at the end of a traditional era. It begins by introducing the lead character, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a liberal-minded novice professor from California, who lands a job in the art history department at a snobbish, all-girl college, called Wellesley, in the fall of 1953. Despite warnings from her boyfriend Paul that a Boston Brahmin environment was out of her element, Katherine was thrilled at the prospect of educating some of the brightest young women in the country however, her image of Wellesley quickly fizzles after her first day of class, in which, was more like a baptism by fire. Her smug students flaunted their exhaustive knowledge of the text and humiliated her in front of a supervisor. However, Katherine, determined not to buckle under pressure, departs from the syllabus in order to regain the upper hand. She quickly challenged the girls’ idea of what constituted art and exposed them to modern artist not endorsed by the school board. She dared them to think for themselves, and explore outside of their traditional views. This form of art was unacceptable by the students at first however, overtime Katherine penetrated her student’s distain and earned their esteem.
In her article “The Socio-Aesthetics of Pink,” Elisabeth Camp, like so many other feminist mothers, struggles with what to tell her young and impressionable daughter about womanhood. Although she acknowledges the connotations that are associated with the color pink, she seems indecisive about how to react. While she wants to support her daughter’s fondness of pink, Camp also wants to educate her about the messages that are inevitably linked to the color. However, Camp’s ultimate indecisiveness on the issue encourages perfectionist ideals of feminism. Because of Camp’s mixed signals, her daughter is unreasonably expected to embody both princess and feminist stereotypes.
In the 1950’s through the 1960’s women were not respected in there everyday lives, in the job field or in general. They did not have the rights they deserved, so during this time the “women’s movement” began. Women fought for their rights and fought for the self-respect that they thought they deserved. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the character Mama, expresses her feelings of pushing or extracting a new side for a woman. Her role explains that woman can be independent and can live for themselves. Through her behavior in this play she demonstrates that women can support and guide a family. Mama is in charge of the family, which is unusual, since men are traditionally the “head of a family”. Through Mama’s wisdom and dialect she expresses and portrays an image of pro-feminism. Mama’s experience in the play A Raisin in the Sun illustrates the expressions, the emotions, and the feeling with which Mama and women had to cope. She was able to characterize this through her passionate dreams, her control and her strong willed attitude.
Blacks and other ethnic minorities played a central role in advertisement during this growth in mass consumption and characters like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben soon emerged as crucial elements in the selling of products. The elements of music, politics, language and general human characteristics resulting from American popular culture all worked together to create the “white negro”- a person who can be simply referred to as a white person with black or “negro” traits. Mailer starts off the second part of his essay by describing the existential trait of the hipster, which is ultimately taken from the Negro.