What Does It Mean To Be A Woman In The Urban Paris Of The Modern World

Steinberg’s essay, “The Philosophical Brothel,” of 1972 was a new account of Picasso’s masterwork, Les Demoiselles d’Avignion [Fig. 13]. Steinberg roots his analysis of the painting in its relationship to the viewer. Steinberg extends the role of the viewer until it is he who completes the painting as the male solicitor of the women in the painting: “The picture is a tidal wave of female aggression; one either experiences the Demoiselles as an onslaught, or shuts it off. But the assault on the viewer is only half of the action, for the viewer, as the painting conceives him on this side of the picture plane, repays in kind.”98 The horizontality of the flatbed picture plane, and the new content it allows, makes the viewer’s role an active

In late 19th century Paris, cafés-concerts (best described as “glorified beer halls” (Clark 206)) were a very popular destination for the people of Paris. Cafés-concerts became an integral part of Parisian social life, as they were visited by hundreds of people each night, regardless of class. A bar at the Folies Bergère became the topic of Edouard Manet’s last painting, as Manet tried to portray the new, “modern” Paris, and the introduction of mass production during this time. A Marxist art historian, T.J. Clark finds this particular painting important because it revealed a lot about the new, modern Paris, and Manet’s intentions with the painting. Clark focuses more on the emergence of the new social class during this time, and how this affected the role of women in Paris. The painting, A bar at Folies Bergère, has historical significance because of how it depicts modernity in the context of the emergence of a new social class (the petite bourgeoisie), the introduction of mass production, and the changing role of women.

April showers bring May flowers or, in Caillebotte’s case, the Impressionist piece A Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877). Downcast faces stare into the puddles while umbrellas shield figures from not the rain, but each other. Caillebotte’s painting captures French author Baudelaire’s concept of the ephemeral modernity with his subjects, their minute interactions, and a complex composition style that moves the viewer’s eyes and heart.

A review of the world’s great artists conjures familiar images: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel; Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night; Pablo Picasso’s The Tragedy. There are many more, of course: Monet, Moya, Warhol, Rembrandt, Kandinsky. What is immediately noticeable, however, upon any brief study of art, is the significant absence of women as heralded artists—not only in our ancient pasts, but even today, amongst valiant efforts for gender equality.

. In the section of her article called The Painter of Modern Life, Pollock uses an essay written by Charles Baudelaire during this time period, to explain how women were viewed in 19th century Paris (Pollock, 254). In this essay Baudelaire follows the travel of an artist through the streets of Paris. She uses this essay for two key reasons, first of all it shows how a man in Paris had access to different places of public life that women were not entitled to go and

Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is a symbol for all little girls with dreams bigger than themselves. The Little Dancer is a statue of a young girl made from all natural materials, created by the artist Edgar Degas. The Little Dancer has a small head with small features; Degas was not trying to emphasize her face, but her minute features display an expression of hope, almost jovial in a way. The air of her expression conveys the quiet discipline of a dancer and therefore her passion and love for ballet. The legs of the dancer are long compared to her torso, turned out, as a dancers always are. This turnout becomes natural after working strenuously every single day, trying to perfect the dancer’s art; standing parallel feels abnormal.

In The House On Mango Street, the metaphor of the “[red] balloon tied to an anchor” (Cisneros, 9) helps reveal the theme of how societal expectations limit women. Cisneros uses red as the balloon’s color to indicate sexuality as in the “Red Clowns” chapter and the “red lips” (88) of the femme fatale in the chapter “Beautiful & Cruel”. She also uses the anchor to symbolize the double standard and the objectification of women. The anchoring of the red balloon represents the oppression of women’s sexuality because the anchor keeps the balloon from being free. The red balloon floats, but it can not fly. In a similar way, the double standard and objectification keeps women from being free. Women on Mango Street are able to express their sexuality to a certain degree, like a floating balloon, but they face abuse and judgement. The judgement and objectification keeps women from expressing themselves, acting like an anchor. Cisneros also expresses this idea through the act of wearing heels. When the girls wear the heels, they feel more feminine and excited, claiming that they’ll “never go

In representing female subjects, both Pablo Picasso’s oil painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) manipulate the formal techniques of composition and perspective to create new ways of seeing their subject, emulating their contemporary society’s shifting views of women and the individual. Les Demoiselles depicts five naked prostitutes, flaunting their bodies, and some wearing tribal masks. In comparison, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère represents a female, who may also be a prostitute, tending a bar. The depiction of previously ‘hidden’ female subjects alone was an innovation of the perception of the artist, however, the formal treatment in representing these subjects was an important break from tradition.

In this poem Cisneros displays a common stereotype of women in a satirical way that is easy to identify with, and in a sense empowers women rather than degrading them. In doing this, she keeps her cultural heritage by using both English, and her own native language, Spanish to define her views. She maintains this sort of style throughout her poems and pursues gender issues and cultural identity with ferocious vitality and purpose.

The main subject of the painting is Madame de Pompadour, who sits half reclining, engulfed by yards and yards of colorful fabrics, with gilded furnishings and flowers galore, a celebratory painting of a “femme savant” (Goodman 1), at ease in her surroundings. Books and papers fill the scene, proclaiming her intellectual prowess. An educated woman, Pompadour is

This reading follows Melissa Gilbert’s examination and views on the urban women. She believes that ghettos restrict the urban women from financial benefits due to their surroundings. This means that urban women mainly black women are disadvantaged economically due to the fact that their environment lacks economical revenue unlike where their white counterparts live. The distance and lack transportation system make them unable to reach proper areas of work, they begin to suffer what is called "spatial entrapment", meaning that ghetto that the live in is there only way of income even though the surrounding they are in has no economic value to give. In this reading we explore the African American and white women of Worcester, Massachusetts

I had the opportunity to watch a movie for The American Sixties class, and discuss the issues that was raised in the movie with my fellow classmates. For the movie review, my friends and I chose to watch The Stepford wives (1975). The reason why we chose this movie was because The Stepford wives was about wives who lives in a small suburb where the women happily do the housework and to please their husband. Since we were all females and all education majors we thought it was going to be interesting to watch this movie.

Thomas Williams’ article in the New York Times titled “How Hipsters Ruined Paris” is an interesting take on the gentrification of Paris’s red light district. Williams begins his narrative with a description of the surroundings of the Northern part of the section of city known as ‘la Nouvelle-Athènes’. This section of the city is notorious for its seediness and for its importance to the history of modern art, two qualities that seem to always go hand in hand. However, Willams notes the grungy atmosphere and qualia that this Parisian neighborhood once held has been cleaned up and effectively gentrified. The number of regulated brothels in the district has gone down from 84 in 2005 to a mere 24 in 2016. Continuing with his description

I seek to explore the female roles in both works while also exposing some of Marie de France’s shortcomings in producing a full-fledged feminist piece.

With each letter in Les Liaisons dangereuses, Choderlos de Laclos advances a great many games of chess being played simultaneously. In each, the pieces—women of the eighteenth-century Parisian aristocracy—are tossed about mercilessly but with great precision on the part of the author. One is a pawn: a convent girl pulled out of a world of simplicity and offered as an entree to a public impossible to sate; another is a queen: a calculating monument to debauchery with fissures from a struggle with true love. By examining their similarities and differences, Laclos explores women’s constitutions in a world that promises ruin for even the most formidable among them. Presenting the reader glimpses of femininity from a young innocent’s daunting debut to a faithful woman’s conflicted quest for heavenly virtue to another’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance and earthly pleasures, he insinuates the harrowing journey undertaken by every girl as she is forced to make a name for herself as a woman amongst the tumult of a community that machinates at every turn her downfall at the hands of the opposite sex. In his careful presentation of the novel’s female characters, Laclos condemns this unrelenting subjugation of women by making clear that every woman’s fate in such a society is a definitive and resounding checkmate.