What is women in art? It is more than a woman as the subject of art, and more than a woman creating art. Women’s art is beautiful, ironic, humorous, political, ugly, cultural, historical, loud, and quiet; it is the future and the past; it is change and stability; it is emotional, intellectual, dangerous, and safe; it is in the galleries or the bathroom stalls. At this point in history, it is political and a tool for change.

Early in the class, especially after visiting museums, I was concerned that the class was only about women as portrait subjects of women as artists. For example, much of the Women’s Art Museum gave me this impression, at least until I made it to the exhibit upstairs which had some pieces making statements about women’s issues. As the class progressed, and my visits to the museums progressed, the story and complexity of women in art and culture revealed its layers, complexities, and utility. Women in art and culture is much more than a painting of a beautiful woman; and it is more than women who have broken into the male artist field to become painters themselves. It is about both of those things, but so much more. Through art and culture, we can examine how we define woman, while at the same time by using art we can change the definition of woman.

The class used a feminist pedagogy. According to bell hooks, university in general has become a place of estrangement and alienation. This feminist course design however, emphasized relationships, equity, de-centering people, and active participation in ones learning. For example, we developed a grade sheet, sat in circles, applied personal experience and worked in groups. My other courses are lecture driven, where we call the professor “doctor so and so,” memorizing and regurgitating facts; not so in this class. This feminist pedagogy mirrors women in art and culture.

As I put myself in this story throughout the class, my eyes were opened to both women in art as stated above, as well as the women’s issues that several pieces of art were portraying.

The first part of the class was identifying what assumptions or stereotypes we have, then either reinforcing them or shattering them to pieces. The lecture given on February 27^th says that we need to keep space open for revision, seeing again, seeing more, wondering and building. This is the basis of the entire class. On the first day of class I may have equated feminism in simple terms, for example bra burning women who want rights equal to men. But throughout this course I revised my thoughts and assumptions about feminism and broadened my perspectives. I was able to clearly identify my assumptions in assignment 1 and have them reinforced or thrown back in my face, which happened a lot throughout the semester. This assignment taught me to notice my assumptions and keep them in mind, while having space open for revision, seeing more, seeing again, wondering and building.

The second chapter of this story was directed towards art and how we can use it to change our community, our society and even the world. Activist art such as the Shadow Project, Sweet Honey in the Rock’s lyrics and music, and even the Tunnel of Oppression which was featured right here on campus. Whether these artists are fighting for the abolishment sweat shops overseas, remembering the bombing of Hiroshima or even analyzing and displaying over 10 forms of oppression, they all use their art to open other people’s eyes and stand up for what they believe in. The Shadow Project has spread throughout the entire world in countries including, United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. It has touched millions of lives and continues to do so each year it is presented. Sweet Honey in the Rock has had several Grammy nominations and won one Grammy award. Their music is heard by millions of people and they are able to spread their beliefs through music. The Tunnel of Oppression has been created in Universities all over the country. Almost 2,000 students on the Maryland campus alone have viewed it and it has evoked an array of emotions in them. These three demonstrations show what art can do. We completed this chapter of the story with assignment 2. Each discussion class was able to create their own art activism event. Each student was able to help and participate in creating an event dedicated to something we wanted to see a change in. Every student was able to take part in creating what we had been learning about. This is very different from other classes I have taken because I was able to actually create what I was learning.

The third chapter begins with the matrix on dominations, marked and unmarked categories, and Kindred. All of this related to how I, as an individual, am a part of history. As we were learning about marked and unmarked categories, oppression and matrix of domination we were assigned to read Kindred. Octavia Butler’s book was the perfect model of what we had been learning about. She used Dana to portray the effects of being marked or unmarked throughout different time periods in the United States. Dana was marked in both time periods but the differences in how unmarked people treated marked people was extremely different. As a black woman in 1976 she was able to live with a white man, have a career and most importantly have rights that are much more equal to white men. When she went back to 1815 all of her rights were gone. She was no longer allowed to be with Kevin, a white man, unless he claimed that he owned her. She was a slave to white people and had to cater to their every need. This book shows how she is strongly marked in some places and times, while in other places and times her marked categories are not so prominent. In assignment 3, I also talked about how I am marked in some places, and unmarked in others. For example when I am at my father’s house I am marked in terms of religion, but when I return to my mother’s house I do not feel so marked because everyone I am around is like me and follows the same religion. The conclusion to this chapter was our interpretation of where in society we are marked or unmarked and how it affects our lives.

The first reading that I felt was important was Megan Seely’s Fight Like a Girl, Chapter 3 “A Movement for Everyone.” This chapter related to the class and really helped me while I was writing assignment 3. Seely begins by discussing how marked categories exist within feminism and tend to separate themselves from other feminist movements. White women are not always as accommodating to women of color as they should be. Women of different marked categories such as ethnicity, religion, age, disabilities and sexual orientation have views and goals that often vary from the majority of white feminists. Therefore these feminists that did not always feel included branched out to form their own movements. An example of feminist art that features on the marked race of Hispanics is Chicana Art by Laura E. Perez. Seely explains that excluding certain types of people is not intentional but can be habit or how one was raised. At the bottom of page 61 Seely describes the “Fight the Right” march, where people of all marked and unmarked categories joined together because they all had something in common, they were oppressed by the power structure. Why can’t all activist events be like this? In my opinion it’s because we all do not completely understand each other. Seely examines racism as a white person, it can be a very hard task to accomplish. This is also something I tried to do in assignment 3. I claimed that I was the racial minority because I went to a “black” school. I tried to describe myself as the minority, but as Paul Kivel states the first guideline is to “Assume racism is everywhere, every day.” This is something I did not do, I only assumed it was oppressing me at school. It did not carry on anywhere else in my life.

Seely also discusses how third wave feminist must keep older, second wave feminists in mind. The second wavers have now become marked because of their age and as third wave feminists we must remember and respect them. This chapter relates to the third assignment because it showed that even feminists can be oppressors and are guilty of unintentionally and/or intentionally discriminating against marked categories. It was like Megan Seely was also given assignment 3 and this was her interpretation of the paper.

The second reading I chose was Cynthia Freeland’s But is it art? Chapter 1 “Blood and Beauty.” I think this was a critical reading for the course because it showed me that art all art is not “average” or “ordinary” art that I am used to seeing. Some of the art in this chapter, such as Piss Christ, I would have never considered art before this course. Throughout the course we saw many other radical art forms and without this chapter in mind I would not have been able to see them as art. Things such as making, in my opinion, dull looking and plain t-shirts, or even documenting an Oral Herstory of Lesbianism Art, would not have been considered art in my eyes before this chapter. But after I read this I was able to see why some people considered such things like piss on a replica on Jesus Christ on the cross and dead sharks, cows or lambs as art. It explains that Piss Christ was made to show that contemporary culture is making Christianity out to something that is taken lightly and it is nothing like it once was. Once this was explained to me I could appreciate what the artist was trying to say and I actually saw it as art. This chapter began to open my mind throughout the semester to various types of art. It was crucial to my progress in the class because I embraced new art forms and gave each piece a chance before criticizing it.

The third reading that I found important was bell hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody, Chapter 9 “Women at Work.” In the early 1900s, before many women joined the workforce they were housewives and mothers. These women were usually lonely and depressed. It was the “problem that had no name” As described in the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. After WWII when women began to enter the workforce rapidly, feminist began to fight for equal labor rights for women. Women would be working today with or without feminism but their pay rates, the amount of hours they work and their rights within their jobs would be dramatically different. In lecture we watched a video featuring the Guerilla Girls. They went around asking people on the street if they believed in equal pay for equal work, and to the ones that said yes, the Guerilla Girls broke the news to them they in fact, are feminists. Feminist activism has greatly impacted women in the workforce. I, for example, am paid exactly the same wage as the men I work with. I think this chapter showed me that feminism did not create things for women, but bettered them. I go to work everyday and benefit from what feminists have been fighting for year after year.

The artistic portion of my project features a collage that spells out my name. The collage includes things that I have found important throughout the course, books I have referenced in this paper and things that interested and related to me in the lectures. I also read over my free writes about each assignment and cut out a few sentences that I stated was my favorite part of the assignment. I included a few pictures of myself at participating in Buffalo, New York’s Gay Pride Parade, which is an activist event that is held every year in various cities across the globe. There is also one picture that I drew myself when I was a junior in high school. Our assignment was to create a piece of art that showed someone’s struggle or inner conflict. I chose to demonstrate the oppression of anorexia, which was also an exhibit in the Tunnel of Oppression. Lastly I have included birth control pills, which has been an on going controversy that feminists have been a part of many years. Because of feminist activism I am able to have safe, reliable birth control. My intention was to show how various parts of this class, and the generations of feminists before me, are a part of me and mean a lot to me. So by using my name I was able to literally show things that make “Allison”.