March 2012
6 posts
2 tags
The Effect of Intimacy: Tracey Emin's Bad Sex...
-discussion of Doyle’s essay-
The idea of bad sex is one that is notably absent from our usual discussions of sex in present-day America. We talk about sex all the time, think about it, even have it, but somehow we are still very sex-negative, especially where women are concerned. On the one hand, we have the double-bind: women who have sex too much (or enjoy sex at all) are sluts, women...
1 tag
Dan Fishback's Talk
I thought Dan was an incredible speaker. He seemed very approachable, which I think is part of why the discussion afterwards was so valuable- people were able to speak up and say things without being nervous, so what they said was more thoughtful. The talk itself occasionally included some things that I wasn’t very comfortable with (I don’t remember everything he said, but I think...
2 tags
How to Have Promiscuity in an Epidemic; and...
-discussion on the Crimp and Blocker essays-
Although these essays only had a few things tying them together (AIDS and how it affects lovers and their art), there was a shared underlying theme of the influence of society on relationships, and the subsequent influence of relationship on artwork. Society is what gives validity to marriage (and therefore what denies validity to gay relationships,...
Reinventing Herself: The Black Female Nude
-discussion of Farrington’s article-
This article contained some great examples of why minority presence is not necessarily desirable without also including fair representation. Visibility is a wonderful thing for marginalized groups, but when it comes as a stereotype, particularly one that lessens the validity of that marginalized group as being equal to whatever the “norm” is,...
2 tags
The Feminist Art Programs at Fresno and CalArts,...
-discussion of Wilding’s article-
I do really like the idea of a feminist art program, one where women artists could have their own space and freedom to work and express themselves. I think the consciousness-raising is a good idea, and I also like the fact that they met off-campus so that they would have a completely free and safe space. I do wonder, however, if the campus itself suffered...
1 tag
February 2012
14 posts
“I don’t want to be a feminist anymore. Like a five-year-old, I want to close my...”
– Via albinwonderland (via feminishblog)
The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel Test is a measurement of female presence in movies. Not fair representation, not non-misogynistic characters, not feminism, simply the existence of women.
The test is simple:
there must be at least two women in the movie.
they must both have names.
they must converse during the movie at least once, about something OTHER than a man.
A surprising and and saddening number of movies...
2 tags
Cloud Nine
As confusing as this play could be at times (I understood most of it, but a few bits were hard to get at first), I really liked the contrasts between the Act One characters and the Act Two characters. So I kind of wanted to compare some of the characters from Act One with the characters that their actors played in Act Two, because those doubled-up roles were definitely chosen with purpose.
Act...
Shoebox Full of Letters: Ways Gender-Privileged... →
meeca:
(This list will be forever in-progress. Please add on as you see fit).
Challenge sexist jokes, such as dumb blonde jokes or jokes about rape.
Avoid using words such as “bitch”, “hoe”, “slut.”
Recognize when you “zone out” when women are speaking, when you value a man’s opinion…
Also, if you’re interested in superheroes/superheroines and how they are portrayed in regards to gender, this Cracked article has a surprisingly well-thought-out explanation for sexism in super costumes. To be honest, I would never have expected to read something this thoughtful from Cracked, which seems to have been tackling more serious issues (but as hilariously as usual) lately.
Their...
“If you really want to support Starfire’s “liberated sexuality”...”
– http://http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/
For those who don’t know, the issue here is that DC Comics recently rebooted several of their comic book characters, including Catwoman and Starfire, both of whom are now purported to be “sexually...
1 tag
Dis/playing the Phallus: Male Artists Perform...
-observations on Jones’ article, week 6-
To be completely honest, after getting through the entire article I stopped really understanding the concept of “phallus.” I know that it’s sort of a mythic, intangible, man-constructed object that gives men power and the lack of which makes women an object of power to be used by men. I wouldn’t have been able to explain...
3 tags
Warhol Gives Good Face: Publicity and the Politics...
-observations on Flatley’s article, week 6-
Subaltern counterpublics are a really cool concepts to me. Within the last year or so, since I’ve joined Kaleidoscope and took the Women’s Studies class, I’ve been more aware of erasure in the media. A lot of minorities are ignored and invisible at best, and stereotyped or represented badly at worst. So the idea of making a place...
How has gender presented itself in your life?
Gender has always been a big part of how I think about myself and how I see the world around me. I have always considered myself a girl, for the most part. But I’m not very feminine, and “girly” things were always kind of uncomfortable for me. I wasn’t sporty or anything “boyish” like that, either. Sometimes it was just easier to wear guys’ clothes and not...
January 2012
13 posts
4 tags
Between You and Me: Man Ray's Object to Be...
-observations on Mileaf’s essay, week 4-
At first while I was reading this article, I thought that the Object to Be Destroyed was a really cool project. It creates not just an image, but an emotion, and one that can be personalized for any constructor or viewer. It’s almost personal performance art. I still think that’s true. But when I was reading about it, I figured that Man...
6 tags
Dandies, Marginality and Modernism: Georgia...
-observations on Fillin-Yeh’s essay, week 4-
It was interesting that this article seemed to be as much about class as it was about gender. Occasionally I thought the essay was a little long-winded, especially when it talked about Duchamp’s art, just because I sometimes have trouble taking art analysis seriously (which is kind of terrible since I’m in this class…)....
4 tags
Modelling the Male Body
-observations on Garb’s essay, week 3-
The idea of “le culture physique” is really interesting to me because, in a way, it’s almost a form of… not performance art, exactly, because it is more lasting than performance art. But it is art made with the body, rather than simply through a separate object. It isn’t entirely through the body, of course, since...
2 tags
Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity
-observations on the Pollock article, week 3-
I thought the idea of the flaneur was really interesting. How he isn’t quite a voyeur, but still is a sort of distant, detached observer who is free of the judgment or critique of others for his gaze. The idea that women cannot be flaneusses (wow, I can’t spell that at all), since they would be enough of a spectacle themselves that all...
5 tags
The Portrait of the Queen
-observations from Sheriff’s article, week 2-
The idea of Vigée-Lebrun being a really independent progressive female painter seems a little odd to me, especially compared with Sofonisba Anguissola. While both of the artists were supported by their powerful patrons (for Vigée-Lebrun, Marie-Antoinette; for Sofonisba, such people as the Pope and the Queen of Spain), Sofonisba managed to make a...
Naked vs. Nude
One of the things we talked about in class was the idea of nakedness, and how it is not equivalent to nudity. My understanding of it is, naked is being without clothes, but nude is choosing not to wear clothes- the lack of clothing is a kind of clothing in itself.
It seems like it ties back to the idea of subject vs. object, and how women have managed to claim the ability to be a subject in the...
3 tags
Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the...
-discussion of the Garrard essay, week 2-
There are definitely multiple facets to Sofonisba’s work, which is part of why she interests me. On the one hand, with her painting Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola, she really could have just been acknowledging the fact that he “created” her artistic identity. After all, she was definitely influenced by him, since he was...
3 tags
"Homosexualism," Gay and Lesbian Studies, and...
-observations on Davis’ article, week 1-
homosexualism: gay people exist
gay and lesbian studies: gay people exist, and are equal
queer theory: everyone is queer to someone of a different sexuality
I think the idea of queer theory is certainly applicable to art history, since it lends a kind of objectivity to the analysis of art. It means that we aren’t looking at objects through a...
2 tags
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
-observations on Nochlin’s article, week 1-
I found it really interesting the amount of explanations Nochlin found in her article. From the title, I had assumed the answer would be, “There were, they just weren’t acknowledged.” That would be my first, instinctive, and defensive reply. But Nochlin mentions in her article that although that is true, it is the wrong way to...
