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?
Who are YOUR hero's?
LINKS
What is Fluidity of Gender
Have Art: Will Travel! Inc For Gender Justice
HAWT Mission Statement
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
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.