Learning Analysis

Walking into class the first day I knew nothing other than I has signed up for a Diversity course labeled WMST250: “Introduction to Women’s Studies: Women, Art & Culture.” The course is structured in a simple but effective matter. The fist step is to define art, then establish what the issues relating women and feminism are. Then the body of the course would be to uncover connections and evolve thoughts through a structured thorough process. The structure of this class was obvious because first the students need to understand what they were looking for (the art), then slowly uncover the underlying issues, and finally through all the reading and assignments build connections between these issues/themes and understand them.
I signed up for the course because it fulfilled my required diversity credit, but choose it over many other possibilities because it was something I knew very little about, if anything at all. I came into the course with certain assumptions of feminism and art. I assumed that feminism was just a movement, that stated that women are equal to men. I had many assumptions of what feminist art would be: women in powerful positions in portraits, paintings, literature, etc… Most importantly, in relation to this course, I assumed that feminism was an isolated issue. As a male I did not expect it to have any direct effect on my environment, or me to have any connection to any other societal issues. I came into class expecting to learn how art by women and art activism have been ways women have analyzed and changed everyday life to better themselves and others, through investigations of: gender, sexuality, racism, nationality, religion, and other factors. After closely examining the syllabus and course material I understood the course argument would be how women through their art, feminism, and activism, have analyzed and changed everyday life, through creation of movement, awareness, and support.
I have learned a lot and my general theory about feminism and art have greatly developed and changed throughout the course. The first step of the class was to develop ideas regarding how feminism, activism, and women’s art have effected society and establish a overall direction for the course. This included defining the student assumptions, or what they think the course is about, then uncovering the main issues surrounding the class which are all ideas of oppression relating through society.
The first assignment was to create a list of assumptions, about the course and feminism/art, off the top of our heads and write them down before doing anything. Then we were to visit several museums to see examples of different women’s art. In the 3-4 page paper we looked back at our original assumptions and, based on what we experienced, we discovered how our original perceptions were right, wrong, or different, or if we learned anything new. This assignment established an overall theme for the course and allowed students to first hand experience the process of formulating ideas, then based on experiences, review change and evolve their thoughts. Personally, this assignment showed me that there was much more to women activism and feminism than I had assumed coming into the class. I learned the issues of women’s rights and feminism was a lot broader and deeper than I thought. Now that I understood that the story of the class was much deeper, not just the initial assumption, the course then had to help explain the story of the class wasn’t strictly women’s art, but all the social fallout of the oppression surrounding women and other groups in society.
The first reading we did was “But is it Art” by Cynthia Freeland. In this book Freeland combines philosophy and art theory to help define and value art. In the book she discusses blood, beauty, culture, value, sex, and politics, all surrounding the interpretation of art. In a chapter about “taste/beauty,” Freeland describes aesthetics' (beauty) as a word derived from the Greek word for sensation or perception, with taste defined as: “refined ability to perceive quality in an artwork.” This really helped me understand art as work because I am also currently taking a Art Theory (ARTT150) class at the University of Maryland. In this class we also go over definitions and attempt to understand what art is. In this class we defined aesthetic beauty as “the right arrangement of things.” It really was insightful at this point of the course to cross-reference and compare the two courses, especially the theory of Cynthia Freeland, a woman’s writer, to the famous and ancient philosophies of the arts. The reading helped establish how women play into the arts and their relationship to the artistic world.
Our next reading was “Fight Like a Girl, How to be a Fearless Feminist” by Megan Seely. In this book Seely uses an interconnecting issues approach to tie together issues in feminism, race, and struggles, with her own struggles as a woman. Each chapter would open with definitions for quotes, examples of related events, and suggestions for further reading. This reading really help open up other societal issues, such as oppression, treatment, and disadvantages, related to women and arts and began building connections with other material we have covered. It really helped me understand the first hand viewpoint of a feminist and the associated struggles. While it was a useful reading I felt it was very opinionated and was more a guideline and resource for women. It was more of an informative practice with building connections than inspiring reading. It wasn’t only I who felt this, but the overall feeling I got from other classmates.
At this point of the class we have all had a chance to open up to the core issues of the class and begun to develop our own standpoints. We were put into groups for Assignment #2. The instructions were to work with our discussion groups to come up with a collective meaning for the term feminism. This assignment was our real first collaborative project where we were able to combine ideas rather than just discuss them in class. It allowed me to go more deeply into what my peers were thinking and to express what I was thinking to them. I was able to give my input to the groups overall thought process and help evolve our collective standpoint was. While the groups definition was a collaborative process, each person, including myself, was able to be a part of shaping and creating our final project. We concluded on a UMD Campus concert, which would include famous speakers such as Hilary Clinton and Oprah, with other guest women’s-rights advocating artists, all to support women in the workplace and fight against domestic violence.
By this point of the class each student had a general understanding of art and feminism and how they connect. The class started to explore new and other ideas that relate and interconnect to what we have already learned. A good example of this was our reading of “Kindred” by Octavia Butler. This reading was of a woman named Dana living in 1976 who is thrown back into the pre-war south to save the life of a white slave-owner, Rufus. She must save him so he can ultimately have a child (Hagar) with Alice. This books theme isn’t only women but slavery and racial problems. The book is filled with blood and violence (beatings, rape, hangings etc..) which really emphasizes the life of black slaves in the south of the time. The book focuses on the theme of power and corruption. We discussed in class how Rufus was a very normal and gentle child. However as he gained power through age and race he began to abuse this power and became the epitome of a corrupt white slave owner. This reading helped identify race and gender social issues and how they interact. I gained a better understanding of societal pressures and how they contribute to the abuse of power and lead to oppression between people.
During one of the class days we visited the tunnel of oppression. The tunnel covered a lot of the major social issues around the world. It had examples from recycling, to drug abuse, racial violence, gun control, the materialistic world, and even abuse of women. This tour of oppression supplemented what we were learning in class at the time, drawing together different issues and uncovering how societal interactions create and influence them. Each exhibit in the tunnel was an isolated issue but in some way connected to a network or cycle of human interaction and behavior that spawned them.
The third class assignment allowed students to really make connections between all these ideas and start to understand how they connect and interact with each other. Up until this point students were just learning to realize and understand the issues, now it was time for the class to begin to relate and understand connections. Students had to understand how power structures everyday life, how art helps us make things change and move; how people shift power to move through and around the matrix of domination that forms oppression, which is the source of many of the issues uncovered in class. For this assignment I looked at myself as an individual and how my age, race, gender, ethnicity, etc… weave together and connect me to a network of power and oppression formed by the institutions of society. By the end of the paper I had a better understanding of how power structures my everyday life through interactions with others to my own decisions in my life. The advantages some people have come from power balanced by the oppression of someone else. This constant balance of power between the “marked” and “unmarked” is what makes up the “Matrix of Domination,” which tied together the theme of oppression that we covered throughout the course.
The goal of the class was to uncover issues, help students formulate opinions, and help students evolve these opinions into standpoints, and develop thorough understandings of the issues. We had several resources to help us. Class work was the most direct source of information. This is where the major concepts of the course were laid out. In class we had free writes where as an individual I could really clarify and formulate my ideas. These gave me an opportunity to explore my own mind. The weekly journals gave students a chance to take home the material from class and help each other achieve a better understanding of the assigned material. I personally learned the most from the discussions. They allowed me to stay on track with the material, where in class we couldn’t possibly discuss to the same level of detail as a small discussion. Each student was given the opportunity to ask peers and the teaching assistant to explain and clarify the material of the class. This really helped me share ideas with others and express my own opinions. I feel most of my conclusions and standpoints were established in discussion. It really helped me fill in the missing links of my own thoughts.
Assignment Four is the conclusion of all our work. It is the final summary of everything we have done. Up until this course I have understood things in segments: art, feminism, oppression, power, etc… I knew there was some connection between them but I never took time to really understand it. This assignment helped me understand the overall structure of the class and how all its contents tied together; how Women’s arts are a feminist expression, speaking out against the oppression of women in modern society. How the oppression of women in society is just part of a larger problem (matrix of domination), how the interactions between people in other issues is related to feminism and racial problems, and how power and oppression forms these issues.
In conclusion the course followed a simple but effective guideline to make its argument, which I did not realize until writing this assignment. It started with the initial assumptions that each student brought to the class. We then developed awareness of issues, bringing up other issues such as race and class problems. Through the creative process of the class, including the group work and assignments, discussions, etc… we developed conclusions and connections between these problems. This is where our ideas and assumptions would develop and change into what I know feel and understand about everything. This course has given me a much better understanding of how society interacts, myself included, to form the balance of power between people which can lead to oppression mistreatment, how feminism is just one focus of the “big picture,” and how art is a form of expression of these issues.

Much love,
Zeke