This week one of my teachers, whom shall not be named, showed discrimination in one of our homework assignments. The question was as follows:
“The section on Feminist Critique in our textbook draws heavily on the ideas originally argued by Linda Nochlin in her 1971 article. Nochlin provocatively claimed that indeed there have been no great female artists in the Western art historical tradition. Is this because women simply don't have the natural talent and imagination to produce interesting and intelligent art? If not, what kinds of obstacles have prevented women from being taken seriously as professional artists? Are you a feminist?”
My initial reaction to this was to just email the journal with two words written, “Screw you,” Now of course that isn’t what I did. I had to be a civil human being and answer the questions the best to my ability. This was my response,
“According to Nochlin there has been no great female artist, all I must say to that is that Nochlin is uneducated and ignorant. There are plenty of famous and great female artists! If you believe otherwise you should do some research first. You can track art back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic times when there were paintings on cave walls. Studies from many anthropologists indicate that women were often the principle artisans. Cave paintings during this time often have human handprints, 75% of which can be identified as female. You may not know the names of these women but you also don’t know any names of men during that time. If its names that you want I can give you up to twenty. Well-known names in the art industry and out of the art industry would be Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) who was a painter, Grandma Moses (1860-1961) who is also a painter, and Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) who was a painter, printmaker, and sculptor and was the first woman to have a retrospective. A retrospective is an exhibition or compilation showing the development of the work of an artist over a period. There are many other amazing women artists that we’ve seen but do not get the credit for it because of their sex.
There has been nothing that prevent women from being great! Thanks to ignorance to that they get put aside. People are still living in such an old-world view, news flash this is the 21st century and if you do not have a penis does not mean you’re lesser than. I am not going to sit here though and be like these ignorant and uneducated people, everyone has greatness within themselves, no matter the gender or age. We all come in the same way and exit the same, nobody is greater than anyone. Even if you’re a heterosexual white male who owns land and is rich. Society is what stops everybody, they have this mindset of what can be great and what it means to be normal, but it has no right.
I would not consider myself a feminist, I’m just allergic to ignorance. I also wouldn’t say I don’t share the views of feminism and what they are fighting for. A lot of people have a misconception of what feminism is, which is where the lack of education comes into the picture. Feminism “…aims to interrogate inequalities and inequities along the intersectional lines of ability, class, gender, race, sex, and sexuality, and feminists seek to effect change in areas where these intersectionalities create power inequity.” (http://wgs.eku.edu/what-feminism-0) Meaning that they fight for all, not just women, this is where people get “angry” towards feminism. Because it has the word “feminine” in it they just automatically assume that they are saying women are better than men, but that’s not true. If people truly looked and educated themselves, they would know that and wouldn’t have anything to say against it; Unless you’re a sexist, racist bigot! Now of course, there are over-the-top people who say one thing is better than another and no matter what you say they won’t listen. But you can find that anywhere in all forms and yes that is wrong. Anyways no I would not say I am a feminist but you can bet that I will stand up for what’s right and equality for all.”
I have never been so angered with a professor before! what gave you the incentive to strike down a gender and say they have no greatness in them? But let me tell you something, like I said above everyone is great and you saying this just pushes me to be even greater, to prove you wrong. Though I may not be able to say this to you face to face, I just have two words, screw you.
