5 hours later AND Gender Fluidity with Linda Stein

Painted Bone by Jan Jackson, one of the original Jafa's before she moved away, and it has NOTHING to do with my blog entry, except for the word NOTHING.
Full of excitement, rushing into the studio 9am, and 5 hours later, NOTHING!  Well, that's a fib, I got a little something, but arg!!!!!!!!  As a friend reminded me, "studio time  also includes solving, puzzling,experimenting, finding inspiration and fixing". So if the end product is going to be worth anything, this is a valuable part of the process.

FLUIDITY OF GENDER
Went to listen to Linda Stein give a talk about her traveling solo exhibit "the fluidity of gender" at Antioch College last night. Very interesting but I digressed on the role of violence by Lisbeth Salander in the film "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo." Rather than being empowered and a hero I saw her as reactive and defensive, and her violence self serving (yes, I know it's a revenge fantasy and I loved the movies-don't hate lisbeth). In the context of the discussion and being a hero though, for all her smarts, she resorted to a primal reaction and solution to deal with her hate and anger. I didn't see her violence as adopting male behaviour either (to do so would to reinforce a stereotype about women would it not?). All in all though I could see the movie as a useful example for exploring gender role reversals etc. Do I have female hero's?  Yes, Suffragettes, Women Warriors such as Bodiecia, well any woman who has the courage to stand up and fight the oppressive/repressive status quo. Women who bucked the imposed confines of their gender sometimes at great cost. One example is the mathematician Hypatia who invented the hydrometer and was murdered by a gang of Christians.
Who are YOUR hero's?

LINKS
Have Art: Will Travel! Inc For Gender Justice


Well these are my thoughts today. Now it's time to go off to the studio and work on my vagina flower.
Ta Ta


Comments

deb said…
Boudica is one of my heroes - no stopping her, and I love the image of the Morrigan - the female god of war whose ravens ate the dead on the battlefield! But my biggest shout goes out to all my mad women, who survived being institutionalized for failing to conform to their gender roles in the 19th century. Right now its important for women to remember the fight - seems some politicians want to send us back to the kitchen!
jafabrit said…
GREAT point about the women who were institutionalized. thanks for dropping by Deb and grrrrr about those politicians.
Snail Cloth said…
I enjoyed your post and thought I would add a couple of women that are my heroes.
Isak Dinesen, a pen name used by the Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, who wrote Out of Africa. She painted a compassionate look at the Africa that she lived in. She didn't fit the stereo type roles that were prescribed for her on the Safari. She made her own rules. When war broke out and they wanted to quarantine the women and children, she said that she wouldn't go to a concentration camp (which is how she saw the camp).

Also I like Pearl S. Buck. She was homeschooled. She was taught by a tutor that taught her Confusius, even though her parents were Christian Missionaries. She believed that Christians created the atmosphere that caused China to go Communist.

I highly suggest anyone to read Out of Africa, and My Several Worlds, by these two women.
jafabrit said…
I have seen the film "out of africa" Snail Cloth but haven't read the book. thank you for adding your heroes. Want to go off an explore them now.
the words "gender fluidity" could inspire a tremendous gallery show!!!!
Snail Cloth said…
The book isn't exactly like the movie (rarely are). The book is more about Africa, the time she was there, growing coffee, and the people that she cared for. The relationship with the people is huge as she saw others exploit the labor there. She really did not like inequalities. She was respected by the men in the community but it came as a price of being fiercely independent. She was also amazing that she didn't just ramble on and on about how unfair life was and how bad it was that her husband got her into a business she knew nothing about and that he lied to her about. She thought she was going to be raising cattle but instead he turned it into a coffee plantation...having just bought the coffee starts right before she arrived. It takes five years for a coffee plant to produce...so you can see she had to learn a lot of patience.

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