Rene Magritte's The Rape

The question of “why feminism?” has been presented to a number of female artists who deal with strong constructions of gender in their work. The answer, overwhelmingly, has been the desire to modify stereotypes about women that have prevailed in male-dominated art history. In the 1960’s, women who explored “feminist” issues in their art were criticized, causing mass mobilization and conscious raising as to what, exactly, was the purpose of feminist art (Crowell, 1991). Since that time, women have been trying desperately to overturn the art world and rescind the traditional stereotypes and images that have plagued them. Feminist artists created somewhat of a unified front during that

Klimt was not a feminist; however, without the feminist movements of Vienna, he would not have been nearly as successful. He enjoyed the eroticization of women, and his work was rebellious in its portrayal of nude women. Even his work that did not actually depict nude women was still extremely sexual, and it was offensive due to its highly erotic and taboo nature. Klimt’s art astounded the Viennese population and became a scandal, making it more well-known.

Nonetheless, the disclosure that surrounds the rape of the woman does not break away from the customary views on violence especially towards women. In the entire movie, women are depicted and viewed as extremely traditional and passive. They are supposed to follow whatever is required from them. Gender through the movie exists in the similar way through which race exists. The society in the movie is largely patriarchy, and gender is unconsciously used for the purpose of justifying oppression and patriarchal

(Millhouse, 2011) In the 1980’s Pollock’s Feminism “critiqued the essential myths of individualism, the artist, and the social constructions of femininity and masculinity that define bourgeois culture”. While the 70’s feminism movement aim was to stand next to the existing masculine dominated culture. “Feminism's encounter with the canon has been complexed and many-leveled: political ,ideology,mythological,methodological and psycho-symbolic” (Pollock, 1999). The 1970’s movement was followed by the immediate task which was “the need to rectify the gaps in historical knowledge created by the consistent omission of women of all cultures from the history of art” (Pollock, 1999). The only art that was put on display was significantly male dominated work, if you wanted to see work created by women, you would have to view them “in a basement or storeroom of a national gallery” (Pollock, 1999). Female artists are only known in their own category of female artists while male artists don’t require a separate category . Art that is created by females have been historically dismissed from the art historical canon as craft, as opposed to fine art. The evident of

Adopting a tongue-in-cheek tone, they list the so called ‘advantages’ faced by women artists in the 1980’s, such as “working without the pressure of success” and “knowing your career might pick up after you’re eighty”. The Guerrilla Girls demonstrate their strategy of using humour and sarcasm to break down discrimination within the art industry through this artwork. It reflects how discrimination is experienced by all kinds of women, both within and outside the art industry. The poster highlights not only the difficulties of being recognised as a female artist, but also the difficulties of balancing a career and personal life in a society that undervalues women’s contribution. The Guerrilla Girls wanted female artists to recognise that they are not the only ones being discriminated against, women all over the world, not only artists, can identify with this. The public are confronted with the hard truth that it isn’t just women artist being targeted, but all women in the world are discriminated against, and it isn’t right. The audience are supposed to look at this piece and feel challenged. They are supposed to tell the Guerrilla Girls what they are writing is wrong, but they can’t, because what is said in this piece is what is really happening in their society. The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist is successful

Some of my themes will include fetishism, sexual desire through artworks, the image of women being no more than the male “other” and symbolism creating narratives by the artists themselves. I will focus on one particular Italian artist; Titian whose work exemplifies the subject through his pieces including one titled Venus of Urbino: a 1538 oil painting. I will also focus on readings by Laura Mulvey and Norman Bryson stating the ideas in which women throughout history in paintings and the more recent films and advertising, are typically the subjected objects. The power of men over women is exhibited in many linguistic senses whether it’s through terms or symbols, there is always a comparison that exists between men and women.

Sexual abuse is a motif that is constantly recurring in the book. Jeannette encounters sexual assault several times but she never victimizes herself.

The most notable aspect of Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides would be its first person-plural narrative voice. Literary scholars have often addressed the issue of the narrative voice and the effect that having multiple narrators has on the story. In her article ‘A story we could live with’ Narrative voice, the Reader, and Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides Debra Shostak addresses how the “we” inadvertently draws attention to the “otherness” of the Lisbon girls. She attempts to dispel the belief that The Virgin Suicides is a misogynistic text by analyzing Eugenides’s complicated use of the word “we”. Shostak’s article gives deep insight into the complexities of the plural narrative and provides a foundation for future analysis of the text. However, what Shostak does not address is how this perception of otherness, by both the narrators and the community in which they reside, ultimately leads to the downfall of the Lisbon sisters. My argument is twofold. Firstly, I will address how the perception by the narrators that the girls are radically different from themselves and their community, combined with the tendency to group the girls as a single monolithic entity serves as one explanation for the girls deaths. Treating the girls as though they are the same person leads to the perceived inevitability of their deaths, which ultimately plays a vital role in their untimely and fatal ends.

The documentary backs up this evidence with statistics. The use ofthe emotional and heart-breaking stories really shed a dark side to the documentary, you really can see the harsh realities that these innocent females go through in day to day life. A powerful story of a girl called Maria explained that her little sistergets bullied and picked on in school due to her not having the model body. This “model “body has come from the media, the advertisements of beautiful models. The young kids that bully Marias sister have been brought up from a young age believing that all females must look like this and if they don’t it is not normal. When you are that young in school you should be enjoying your life and making new friends. No one should be picked on due to their size or weight.The last persuasive technique being used in this documentary is statistics. The use of statistics in this documentary adds a sense of realism to the effect on the young mind through the media portraying females negatively. The most shocking statistic was given by Jackson Katz, which was explaining the male outlook on females. The statistics read, “1 in 4 girls experience teen dating violence, 1 in 6 females are survivors of rate or attempted rape.” (Miss representation). These statistics are horrifying , the severity of the statistics, catches the reader’s attention due to the shocking numbers. It brings to the surface the dark secrets and real number of this actually occurring in today’s society. It makes the reader think about why this is actually happening and what causes this abuse of women. The media objectifying women cannot be a great start.In conclusion, after examining the techniques used in the documentary, Miss Representation shows the negative experiences that

Rape is a grotesque topic, but in The RoundHouse by Louise Erdrich the subject is a necessity for Joe to comprehend what happened to his mom. Joe is a 13 year old boy that has to grow up faster than he expected. With the attack of his mother and his father's inability to rehabilitate her, Joe steps up and begins to take an active role in trying to find her attacker. Normally a 13 year old would remain oblivious to the turmoil surrounding his family. Joe does not. He takes the attack of his mom personally and becomes more serious. As a reader there are not many scenarios where he is portrayed doing child like things. This is why I believe Erdrich includes the scene with Grandma Thunder. She is the comedic relief and the readers opportunity to

As long as sexism exists within our society, it will exist within our literature. Depicting women as the submissive and therefore passive gender has been an age old occurrence within cultures. This is reflected in many aspects of societies from pop culture to history. A key contributor to the continuation of this is the unreliable, biased and sometimes outright manipulative narrative of these texts. This narrative, subjective in it’s art, not only affects how female roles play out in a plot but also heavily influence how the audience views the power dynamic between genders. Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, James K. Baxter’s He Waiata Mo Te Kare, and Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer all female characters have been passive victims or objects to their circumstance.

Art imitates life in these two works. The societal beliefs of the Middle Ages were prominently against women having any power, though there are always some

Art has been a recurring part of history from the very beginning. As society changes so does the style of art. Each new style is known as a movement and one of the most prominent, long-lasting movements in recent centuries is known as Modernism. Modernism is characterized by its deviation from tradition. People who are a part of this movement found enjoyment in finding new mediums to use, creating art that revolves around feelings and emotions rather than reality. Abstract idealisms of modernism cause its viewers to need to think more critically about the art before them. In past movements, the meaning of the work was obvious as it was created to mimic reality.

The Guerrilla Girls speak about sexism in art galleries and the non appreciation of women 's art in the most prestigious galleries of New York. “a very big problem is the fact women don 't collect. ... Men buy the art and call the shots museums. Until women support women and collect each things will never change" (Withers 287). Women artists new to the art world were not accepted, men artist bought their art to present as their own. This way women artist do not get the chance to be recognized for their talent. Making the assumption women are only valued as the model but cannot aspire to be artists and create exceptional work as men would. This is of importance because only 1% or none of the art presented was of women artists. “not only in their appeals to principles of equality, but also, say, in their gesture of adopting the names of deceased female artists as aliases, a gambit tacitly

I am going to structure this essay to answer the question ‘How has Feminist Art impacted upon feminism?’. In this essay I am going to discuss the issues of inequality within the art world and the world in general and how Feminist Art has overcome some of these past issues. I am going to discuss the work of The Guerrilla Girls, Judy Chicago and Linder Sterling and how I believe these artists changed the inequality that lingered in the art world.