ways of seeing women as art artists

Question 1

guerilla girls

Answer 1

Began as a protest to Museum of Modern Art’s representation of women in art and the lack of representation of women artists and both male and female artists of color
Female artists who formed an anonymous group in 1985 in order to expose and fight sexism and racism in the fine arts
Wear gorilla masks to hide their identity and remain anonymous
-focus on issues
- avoid blowback from folks in the art community

Question 2

specific critique of museums and curators in SoHo, East Village, and Tribeca New York, why was region targeted

Answer 2

Began as a poster campaign

• Outreach into local community centers
• National movement
• International movement

Question 3

1989 statistic of do women have to be naked poster

Answer 3

less than 4% of the artists in the modern art sections are women, but 76% of the nudes were female

Question 4

2005 statistic of do women have to be naked poster

Answer 4

less than 3% of the artists in the modern art sections re women, but 83% of the nudes are female

Question 5

2012 statistic of do women have to be naked poster

Answer 5

less than 4% of the artists in the modern art sections are women, but 76% of the nudes are female

Question 6

critique of Irish academic institution

Answer 6

museums and art academy were male dominated but the art schools are majority female so there was more female artist but just show male art work

Question 7

discourse theory, words matter

Answer 7

not just what we see, words are important too “femaleness is a deformity, though one that occurs in the ordinary course of nature”
Females reach puberty, maturity, and old age sooner because they are “weaker and colder in their nature”

Question 8

John Berger excerpt from ways of seeing (1972) men

Answer 8

-men
dependent on the promise he embodies
-if promise of power is small or incredible, little presence
-if the promise of power is large, striking
- suggests what he is capable of doing to/for you
- always a power he exercises on others
men have a masculine look in paintings but women look vulnerable

Question 9

John Berger excerpt from ways of seeing (1972) women

Answer 9

women
-attitude towards herself
- what can and cannot be done to her
manifested by her
gestures, voice, opinion, expression, clothes, surroundings, taste
- effect on the way women see themselves
- they view themselves through men’s eyes
- today’s representations of women and men
women must constantly survey everything she does because that is how others see her
men act and women appear

Question 10

kim and Kanye bound 2 video

Answer 10

• men always the focus point
• Kanye wears expensive clothes
• kim wears nothing and is depicted in a a very sexual way
• when they do it, its normal
• societies norms

Question 11

franco/rogan satire “Bound 3”

Answer 11

• funny because its against our norms
• something we aren’t used to seeing
• we are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with it

Question 12

re/criminalization of homosexuality

Answer 12

-gendered differences
homosexual men seen as a mental disorder 
-sex between women seen as impossible
-laws made to punish homosexuality
-changes in penalties

Question 13

sodomy laws

Answer 13

1530 ‘s based on interpretations of the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah

• death penalty (not used after 1830’s)
• 1861 offences against the person act
• legally removed death penalty
• prison sentences between 10 yrs to life

Question 14

scientific discourses of “homosexuality”

Answer 14

• 1869 benkert von kertbeny (hungary)

- 1880’s Havelock ellis (English usage)

Question 15

1885 labouchere amendment to the criminal law amendment act

Answer 15

-prison sentence up to 2 years “hard labor”
“acts of gross indecency” associated with “male lust”
-assumption that sex between woman was “impossible”

Question 16

1921 attempt to extend to provision to women

Answer 16

-fails over concern that publicity would make women aware of female homosexuality

Question 17

freedman and D’Emilio late 18 century/early 19 century

Answer 17

• women’s “romantic friendships” physical and emotional affection normative
• physical intimacy between middle class men may have been normative as well
• documents suggest that men were more comfortable describing their physical intimacy interspersed with longing fir women’s bodies

Question 18

representations of men’s affection in the Memorian XXXIX

Answer 18

• mans longs for his dead friend

- strokes the tree and it “ejaculates”

Question 19

British 18th and early to mid 19th century martial law

Answer 19

• legally husband and wife were one legal entity.
• wife cannot “will” her property/possessions to anyone without approval of husband
• wife’s physical body becomes the legal possession of her husband
• no such thing as a consensual divorce
• wife’s integrity and character has ben compromised by “criminal conversation” with another man

Question 20

British 18th and early to mid 19th century martial law process of divorce

Answer 20

• petition for legal separation through church court
• husband petitions for damages in civil court for economic compensation
• divorce with right to remarry granted by a private act of parliament
• fees begin at e200 = 24,000 today
• custody of minor children often given to father

Question 21

1857 divorce and matrimonial causes act

Answer 21

• authorized secular divorce
• husband provides maintenance to ex-wife
• if husband deserts wife, he is denied the right to her earnings
• upon divorce, woman is granted the property rights of a single woman; however, whatever she brought into the marriage remains her ex husband’s property

Question 22

matrimonial-

Answer 22

causes court determines child custody

-often remains in father’s custody because they are seen are seen as his property

Question 23

problems for making it hard to get a divorce

Answer 23

• only one court location- London
• cost: e40-e70 (today’s 4800-8400)
• gendered double-standard
• -husband only has to prove wife is cheating
• wife has to prove of cheating and at least one of the following:
• incest
• cruelty -economic, deprivation, physical/sexual/verbal, violence threats
• desertion
• bigamy
• cultural stigma associated with divorced women

Question 24

married women’s property act 1870:

Answer 24

• property brought to the marriage remains the property of the husband
• women retain their own earnings and any investments made with those earnings
• could keep inherited money up to e200=24,000
• after divorce, women held responsible for contributing to the expenses or maintenance of children
• more often-than-not courts continue to place children in father’s custody
• 18 acts introduced b/n 1870-1888

Question 25

1888 acts

Answer 25

• married women have the same rights to their property as unmarried women
• in marriage, married women retain ownership of property received prior to the marriage