Blue Eyes Designs

(This rant-like thing is in response to an article about “feminist art”
distributed by my drawing prof the other day. I think you get an idea of what I
thought of it. Sorry for all the flowerly language. I’m feeling metaphorical
today.)

I’ve never cared much for feminists. More than any other group, they seem to
make mountains out of mole hills and generalize far more than they should.
Because of this, I take issue with the assertions of Rosemary Betterton. She
takes issue with the common practice of using female nudes as the subjects for
art, seeing it as a subjugating and male-serving ideal. On page 220 for example,
Betterton admits that she cannot assume how other women think of art, she
implies that, “knowing feminism” they would see the way she does.* To me this
means that, unless it’s explicitly pointed out and explicated, most would not
see what she sees. In a court of law, that would be called “leading the witness”
and is very much frowned upon. I, being female and aware of the feminist ideas,
have yet to look at the work of classical artists and go “Wow! That’s
subjugation!” unless that was the artist’s intent. I certainly don’t feel that
admiring the female body is an act of dominance or subjugation. I personally,
would much rather work from the bodies of females than males for purely
aesthetic reasons: the female form is generally softer and smoother than the
male, often lending a dynamic to a piece that would be completely different were
the subject male. I don’t deny that, in the past, women were treated as less
than they were, and I feel that this is the molehill out of which Betterton’s
making her mountains. I feel that it’s important we keep the ideologies of the
period close at hand when considering the art. To her mentioning of the
portrayal of women in modern media, I feel this is naught but a self-subjugation,
being of free thought, will and expression, women have the ability to say “hey,
that’s crap” and move on with their lives. Why can’t they say the same for this
“repression” they see in art? It seems to me so much more energy efficient than
tilting at windmills.

* “…While I am quite clear that my pleasure in a female nude by
Valadon [a female artist] is greater than in one by Renoir, I certainly cannot
assume this to be true for all women. What makes the difference? Not
socialization, but certain kinds of knowledge and experience, of which for me
the most important is an awareness of feminist ideas.”