I wanted to draw your attention to a fascinating article over at le projet d'amour, entitled On Feminism: Romantic Femininity. I appreciate the discussion, though I'm not sure I've personally ever felt any negative gender implications from the artworks I love. But I found her comment at the end about Bright Star especially thought-provoking.
Interesting article/post! As a feminist (who simply believes it means men and women should be equal), who finds this art beautiful, I'd enjoy seeing more equality in displaying women as strong, aggressive, and defiant. People are multi-faceted, after all....men and women....and I hate simplistic, stereotype baloney. But it's also important to remember that times were obviously different back then....
ReplyDeleteAs someone who draws and paints, I feel grateful to the strong women that soldiered on and fought for the right to paint and express themselves just as "loudly" and creatively as the men. If interested, the book "A World of Our Own" by Frances Borzello gets into a lot of that.
One of my favorite fictional characters is Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise. I can appreciate an Ophelia painting and Ripley rampaging on a movie screen. I love that I'm living during a time period where I can enjoy both. :)
I am a real feminist who strongly believes that men and women should remain different. And for those who know mathematics there is no "equality" among different entities.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly a thought-provoking conversation! I really am honestly not sure where I stand on it, but I can only speak to my own responses to the art, and those have never really been negative :)
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