Public Perception of Feminist Performance Activism

Feminists that approach analyzing popular culture proceed from a variety of theoretical positions that carry with them a deeper social analysis and political agenda. Popular culture has been a critical part of feminist analysis. “Cultural politics are crucially important to feminism because they involve struggles over meaning” (Storey, Intro 136). Analyzing a piece of pop culture through a feminist viewpoint, whether it be a music video or any sort of media, opens up a broader discussion about the structure of our patriarchal society and the ways in which politics are constantly portrayed and

Women’s music came from radical, grassroots origins in the 1970s thanks to contributions by brave women, mostly lesbians (Mosbacher, 2002). These women used non-violent, peaceful force to forge their own way into the music industry. It was a peaceful yet political revolution of togetherness and liberation. It brought together women of different backgrounds who produced easy-listening, mellow harmonies played with lyrics filled with tumultuous

The Guerrilla Girls are a group of women formed in 1984 after an art exhibition hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City where it became clear to them that the art industry was gender bias with women artists not being acknowledged. Since then they have been devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world, their mission to bring gender and racial inequality within the arts into focus. They have done this by producing factual and humorous posters that comment on these issues and that challenges and confronts society to realise the injustice.

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

The women’s liberation movement (or feminism as it is now known) of the 1960s and 1970s touched every home, business, and school (WA, 705). The movement even touched the sports and entertainment industries, in fact, “There are few areas of contemporary life untouched by feminism” (WA, 717). The word feminism in the early 1960’s wasn’t often used and when it was it was used with condescension or hatred. However, in the late sixties that changed thanks to a new group of women. This new diverse group of women included the: young, old, heterosexual, lesbians, working class, and even the privileged. This diverse group came together and collectively created the second wave of feminism.

Every girl growing up always use to play dress up in clothes as a childhood past time for fun. Cindy Sherman used that passed time as a way to create art with photography and is known for her talent of this act and taking self-portraits of it. Her ideas come stereotypes of women throughout past and present society. These self-portraits are known to “confront and explore the representations of women in society.” (Jankauskas).

Many radical feminist groups such as the New York Radical Women group (NYRF) gathered together as The Women Liberation Movement to protest against the deep-rooted conception of a “traditional woman” in the United States during the Second Wave Feminism (1960s-1990s). The Women Liberation Movement was a demonstration of challenging society’s common sense, or hegemony, which was nurtured by the dominant ideology which in this case was a gender hierarchy where men were believed to be superior to women. The primary source “No More Miss America” by Robin Morgan describes her experiences as a participant of the NYRF protesting against the Miss American Pageant in Atlantic City on September 7th 1968. The NYRF group discussed ten points of how the Miss American Pageant promoted the “traditional woman” stereotype based on racial beauty standards, submissiveness, and inferiority to men.

In her essay she relates the rise of feminist consciousness in the 1960s to numerous changes in American society, especially the rise of other protest movements. Echols said, “On September 7, 1968, the sixties came to that most apple-pie of American institutions, the Miss America Pageant” (Echols, 308). The reason she said this was because one hundred women’s liberation activists descended upon Atlantic City to protest the pageant’s promotion of physical attractiveness as the primary measure of women’s worth. From there, the protestors set up a “Freedom Trash Can” and filled it with high-heeled shoes, bras, girdles, hair curlers, false eyelashes, typing books, and representative copies of Cosmopolitan, Playboy, and Ladies Home Journal. They wanted to burn the contents but couldn’t because of the laws for bonfires on the boardwalk. Also, word had been leaked to the press that there would be a symbolic bra-burning. However, there were no bras burnt that day. But the image of the bra-burning, militant feminists remains part of our popular mythology about the women’s liberation movement. The Miss America demonstration represents an important moment in the history of the sixties as well as the women’s movement (Echols, 309-310).

The NYC Radical Cheerleaders describe their activity as, “[A]ctivism with pomp poms and middle fingers extended. It’s screaming F*CK CAPITALISM while doing the splits” (qtd. in Adams and Bettis 36). Since their inception in the mid-1990s, the feminist Radical Cheerleaders have given women a stronger voice in the activist sphere while they scream, shout, and protest against a myriad of social issues. These range from the patriarchy, LBGTQ discrimination, and beauty standards, to police brutality, sexual assault, and capitalism, but they are all linked to the fight for human rights. In their protest, they subvert the stereotypical image of the white, blonde, thin cheerleader, looking to incite public interest and engagement. Ultimately, radical cheerleaders channel the theatricality and obscenity of the women’s liberation movement to reclaim their rights in the public sphere with curses, vulgarity, and action.

On September 7th, 1968, hundreds of women gathered on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, carrying signs and singing songs that all had the main theme of protesting the Miss America Pageant. Later, they threw items of women’s oppression in what they called a freedom trash can. While the women who were apart of the Miss America Protest worked to defy society’s oppression and standards, they also marked one of the first explorations in the feminist movement. This certain protest helped to pave the way for many more women to come and impacted many of the basic ideas of fighting society’s norms.

Media sensationalism creates an interesting phenomenon; more often than not, the comments made by varying levels of popular culture stars become catch phrases, buzz words, and the be-all end-all definition of an individual. These occurrences happen, for better or worse, and an individual becomes intrinsically linked to those statements for the rest of their living life and well after. Sometimes these comments are uplifting and promote the betterment of man; but sometimes they serve to berate or belittle a group as well, often times with very little thought being put into what has been disseminated. In either case, they are merely the opinions of an individual who happens to be famous. At times, the subject of opinion may hold little

No other artist has ever made as extended or complex career of presenting herself to the camera as has Cindy Sherman. Yet, while all of her photographs are taken of Cindy Sherman, it is impossible to class call her works self-portraits. She has transformed and staged herself into as unnamed actresses in undefined B movies, make-believe television characters, pretend porn stars, undifferentiated young women in ambivalent emotional states, fashion mannequins, monsters form fairly tales and those which she has created, bodies with deformities, and numbers of grotesqueries. Her work as been praised and embraced by both feminist political groups and apolitical mainstream art. Essentially, Sherman's photography is part of the culture and

The Guerilla Girls are a women’s activist art group. They are masked women who came together to make change in the world of art and women’s involvement in society. GG emerged in 1985 and still are active today in New York after 30 years of the emergence of the group. The Guerilla Girls used posters with real statistics to show awareness of sexism in the art world and the discrimination of women in politics as well as in the mass media. The Guerrilla Girls spread awareness of sexism in art, discrimination in politics and the mass media through their workshops, performances, and posters.

There is some disparity between the way critics and philosophers like Judith Butler view Cindy Sherman's work and the way that Cindy Sherman speaks of her photographs. It may be the disparity that exists between many modern artists, who often operate on an intuitive level, and the philosopher critics who comment upon them from a theoretical perspective or a pre-established framework. On one level, Cindy Sherman may only be playing "dress-up" (as she herself admits) in her famous History Portraits (1989-90) (Berne, 2003). On another level, however, her "dressing-up" may be indicative of a deeper problem in modern gender identity theory which is the problem of "becoming" woman (Butler, 1994) or, as Judith Butler sees it, the problem of performativity. In the History Portraits, Sherman may certainly be said to be "performing" and perhaps even attempting to "become" the male and female characters she represents in her work. Indeed, it is upon such a premise that philosopher critics and gender theorists find her work so engaging. This paper will examine Cindy Sherman and her History Portraits in relation to Judith Butler's gender theory, the portrayal of the self, and how gender identity has changed throughout the course of modern history. It will examine representations of womanhood from Romantic Idealism to Post-Modernism and will also

On Saturday, October 28, I viewed Hear them Roar: The Fight for Women’s Rights, a production by NYU Steinhardt’s Educational Theatre program. Directed by Nan Smithner, clinical associate professor of educational theatre at New York University, the play not only focuses on the struggle of white American women to achieve equal rights, but also on immigrant women and women of color. We are also shown the point of view from the anti-suffragists, and it was quite unnerving to learn that many anti-suffragists were women themselves. The production also highlighted the men who were instrumental in helping woman achieve the right to vote. I enjoyed every aspect of this production as it opened my eyes to a new way of using theatre as an art form. While the diverse ensemble of actors and other artists, like the costumer and set designer, deserve credit for this wonderful show, I especially enjoyed the director’s work in making Hear them Roar: The Fight for Women’s Rights an eye opening, revolutionary play.