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Show U I gj9C' Iftt 1 ' "K. . "7 to GCbq V I ! I Sum v i W, D&S5G5$ n :!;;s in &3 aGlcioin Art Sotiicns ere visman, biw 05 Less fifcsn Bf, of &3 J . 44 if . ? .... II tUUliLAJ liiLdCONSCENCE Of IH AJ?T WCR.D 1 Q l&uuu in american pop culture and high art vet the last century BY CAMI NELSON here may be no good answer to the question, "Is feminism dead?" There may be an answer, however, to the question, "Is feminism a dirty word?" To explore contemporary sentiment on feminism, pop culture's arts and high culture's arts allow some possible places for what began in the '6os as the ferocious and furious Feminist Movement. Art has always portrayed and betrayed social thought throughout history. Thought on women's roles in society has marked pop culture and high art throughout time. Women's movements and issues have always existed, but none have been so literal and illustrative as the women's movements played out within the United States in the last century. The implications of these move- ments mark its resulting arts. Essmtial feminism in ths 1920s In 1920, women were acknowledged as able voters. They somehow won the right that men were already born with. Current thought on gender and sexuality at the time was directed on many fronts by Sigmund Freud, who although many challenge his ideas today at least opened dialogue concerning women and why, in the past, their roles seemed to take a back seat. Freud offered an explanation for the way men's and women's roles were essentially different. Many feminists took off with Freud's theories as a basis for the slogan that men and women are different but equal. "X O'Kfo in thm '20s In the questioning and explorative era of the '20s, artists who were women, like Georgia O'Keefe, found themselves able to take part in what was traditionally a man's world. Many, including the famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz, described O'Keefe's work as "of intense interest from a psychoanalytical point of view." Stieglitz continues, "I had never seen a woman express herself so frankly on paper." O'Keefe's large paintings of flowers have come, for many, to represent symbols of the female genitalia, which were being expressed after many long years in hiding. O'Keefe was always more vague about her intentions than the discourse that resulted from her work. She said her painting "seems to express in a way what I want it to but it seems rather effeminate it is essentially a woman's feeling satisfies me in a Goorgh way." O'Keefe's work marked a new feminine art, a feminist art without the word feminist. In the 1920s, true to essentialist sentiment on gender and sexuality, people like Stieglitz describe O'Keefe as having created an art form, a line, that could only have been created by a woman. Perhaps O'Keefe was ahead of her time when she resisted such sentiments, when she refused to be called a "woman artist." Ferocious and Furious Feminism in the 1960s, '70iThe '60s and '70s marked arguably the most polemical and political movement for women in history. There were clamorous leaders and new publications, like Ms., that addressed women's issues and women's rights. Women protested beauty contests, and they burned their bras as symbols of their refusal to be restrained in any way. Above all, Feminist leaders encouraged women to leave their homes and enter the work force. Popular culture also echoed feminist sentiment. In 1977, Boeing ran the ad, "She had breakfast with the national sales manager, met with a client from nine to ii, talked at an industry luncheon, raced across town to the plans board meeting and then caught the 8:05 back home." Introducing the power woman. Writhin two decades, the number of possible roles women could play increased exponentially. But there was still sexist sentiment lurking in the corners of ads and culture all the time. Take, for example, Enjoli's perfume ad, "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan. And never, never, never let you forget you're a man." Feminist artists like Cindy Sherman and Mary Kelly worked throughout these charged decades, striving against previous popular roles for women. , , 4wuw4 V ' " '.'.. " mummm'm c- , aw-sjsi,- O'Keefe's contemporaries claimed she discovered a "female" line and an unprecedented feminine art "Red Poppy" (1927) 1 |