Mary Cassatt: A Feminist Analysis

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Personally, I do not know how should I think about feminism appropriately or what is the ideal way to think about this word. Since there are no significant differences between male and female, except physical aspects, the inequality between females and male has remained for several thousand years. it is necessary for human beings in contemporary society to think about this issue seriously because females have to voice for themselves and discriminations have to be eliminated progressively. From time to time, I heard some expressions so radical that I really question the meaning and the purpose of feminism. For instance, in Modernity and Modernism, Tamar Garb criticizes Renoir’s painting, Maternity, or Woman Nursing her Child, with the words …show more content…

Therefore, she forms a complicated, personal relationship with children. Why does she so obsess with motherhood, while she does not even have one child? In a certain degree, I think children are certain forms of a weapon for Mary Cassatt to substantiate her uncompromising feminism. On the other hand, concerning her superior social position and biological sex, it might easier for her to observe motherhood, to reproduce the sincere motherhood. However, she has not been male, and then she is unable to experience another kind of connection between a father and a son as well. Even though she can imagine that by herself, it would never be exactly the same. Thus, it would probably be difficult for her and any other females, to reproduce this different relationship whereby it explain the awkwardness in the portrait she makes for her brother and …show more content…

The significant difference is two individuals in the portrait are males. On the other hand, it is rarely to see the portrait of father and son appearing in the same frame throughout the history of western art. In most of the portraits, fathers are serious and alone. In the 19th century France, women are concerned with the realms of their activities, men are free to go anywhere they want in the whole day. Based on Garb’s description, the theater is the few places women are able to go for entertainment. For the rest of their time, they have to stay in the private sphere because of conventional ideology. For the males in the patriarchal society, they are eager to exemplify their ambitions and masculinity in the public spaces. From their point of view, home is the assigned setting for women. Wives and children, sometimes, are equal to the tools of manifesting their power and social status.
In a certain degree, because of males’ stereotypical ideas, Cassatt uses this portrait to persuade the males to return to the family. Families are not only about females and children, but also necessary to males. In the Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son, Robert Kelso Cassatt, although the father returns home with accompany of his son, he still concentrates on the book or newspaper in his hands. He does not care about the left arm placed around his shoulder. In the contrast, the expression

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