Dogon Couple Essay

The topic of gender roles and gender inequality has been a universal issue. There has always been a norm that men were seen as the dominant figures while women were inferior. But recently, people have been more aware and have begun taking action to promote gender equality. The art piece that I will be discussing is the wood-sculpture named the Dogon Couple. It was made sometime between the 16th and 19th century in Mali, Southern cliff. This sculpture is made out of wood and metal. The sculpture’s credit line is Lester Wunderman because it was gifted from Wunderman in 1977. This sculpture is now exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The sculpture presents to the audience the idea of equality between men and women in the Dogon society

By using bilateral symmetry, the audience can see that they look almost identical except for the distinct features that identify them as man or woman. “The artist distills man and woman to a perfectly integrated and harmonious union”. The artist portrays man and woman as if they are one being. The way the man and woman in the sculpture are display and from the size of both sculptures, it can portray the idea of how they are representations of each other. The physical features of both their faces, from their eyes, nose, and even their bodies and legs are identical. Both of their bodies are long and vertically parallel to each other to show that they are the same. But the man has a beard while the woman has more jewelry like the earrings portrayed on her face. This is to symbolize a more feminine figure. But even though the man has a beard, she has a labret that is inserted on her lower lip as an ornament which balances out the shape of the man’s beard which ultimately shows that they are still identical and equal despite their gender. Their facial expressions are the same. They look identical to the point where the artist is trying to say that the man and woman are reflections of each