The false idea is that there really is such a thing as feminist art, as opposed to art that intentionally or by osmosis reflects or is influenced by feminist thought, of which there is plenty.
You know what I call art influenced by feminism? Feminist art. easy to say, easy to understand, very straightforward.
Anyway, I had a lot more to say on it, and of course I wanted to mention this lovely little sentence,
Study “The Dinner Party” close enough and your bra, if you’re wearing one, may spontaneously combust.
Yes. because feminists burn bras.
But slowly, throughout the review, she started to redeem herself. Don't get me wrong, I still think her writing is unclear, and she did a poor job of articulating any central idea. Still, I couldn't stay too mad, because I fell in love with her last sentence:
The word feminism will be around as long as it is necessary for women to put a name on the sense of assertiveness, confidence and equality that, unnamed, has always been granted men.
2 comments:
I agree with you on the opening - definitely a very convoluted way of starting. However, at the risk of sounding like an uninformed idiot (which, actually, I find I usually am!) I must say that saying a bra might spontaneously combust doesn't really insinuate that feminists are bra burners. I actually found that line to be quite funny!
Here's why it bugged me: the work of art she was talking about is basically a table set up for a dinner party where each place is for an important female historical figure. (people from ancient greece through virginia woolfe and georgia okeefe) and the whole thing has all these "women's crafts" like weaving and china painting and needlework. So it's supposed to be this big celebration of powerful women and of various forms of artwork that have always been seen as less important than "male" forms of art. So it's these really positive ideas that if they aren't mainstream, definitely should be, and then the author links them with this radical fringe of the feminist movement. And when people talk about feminist bra-burners, they're usually so busy ridiculing the messenger that they ignore the message.
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