Feminist Art Essay
Femininity, masculinity and, indeed, queer theory have, for years, been based on the essentialist binary opposites of male and female inherent in modernism. In today’s ‘Postmodernist’ world these gender definitions are increasingly under attack by feminist theory, gay studies and queer theory. Women are confronting issues of gendered oppression, men are confronting issues of sexism and homophobia, everyone is searching for ‘self’.
It is my intention in this essay to concentrate on feminist art, in particular, the art of Judy Chicago and Annie Sprinkle.
Feminist thinking today is influenced by the theories of postmodernism, in particular, that of the rejection of a social structure based on bi-polar gender stereotypes rooted in biology with a strong leaning towards patriarchy.
It must be understood that feminism is not one thing; it’s a catch-all description of a range of issues, theories and behavioural patterns. Feminism is also split into two main camps: The radical/political which claims equal rights with men on the basis that women are equal and can do anything men can do, given the chance, and a kind of spiritual/earth mother approach which claims that women are different from, and better than, men because they are life givers and in touch with the natural. Read more…
