1. Recognizing Feminism In History:
Through Art, Gender, Race, and Sexual Identity
Samuel Hess
Contemporary Art: 372
Professor Twist
April 27, 2012

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To understand anything fully, one must first define said term, and retrieve
multiple standpoints on the issue at hand. Feminism cannot be defined as a term, but
rather a collection of movements, which urge male dominated societies everywhere to
reexamine the equality among gender, whether it be socially or economically. When
talking about art history, it is natural that one must consider the social aspects of
feminism, a history that “has prompted the rediscovery and reevaluation of the
achievement of woman artist, both past and present”.1 The main topics in feminism are
directly correlated to gender, but this is not the only topic that feminism deals with. On a
global assessment of feminism, gender is not the only foundation of problems, but also
race. Since women have been oppressed, it comes as no surprise that the issues of race
and gender are equivalent hurdles to overcome.
In this essay, there will be an analysis on how one can convey women’s
oppression through the eyes of a man, paying careful attention to how women artists
across history have made their point, and how their gender and race affected audiences
across the world. In expressing what is meant by artists choice of materials and their
creations, there will be a overview of how women have been seriously undermined for
their creative mastermind, and how new allies have began to form out of the dusts of
sexual identity. In this examination, it will become evident that through an ever-
compounding collection of innovative thinkers, and their allies, feminists throughout
history have continued to progressively change the world’s view of woman artists, no
matter their race, gender or sexual identity.
1 Norma Broude, Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (Colorado:
Westview Press, 1982), 1.

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Women may have only recently received credit for their work in the art world, but
proof of women’s artistic capabilities go back much further than men would like to give
credit for. The main medium in which early women made themselves seen in art is
through needlework, and quilting. In women’s culture, the art of making quilts is
important because it is universal to female artists, transcending social class, race, and
even national borders. 2 Quilts surpass all race and social class because they are not only
a necessity, but also a tradition that many cultures shared. By the 18th century, around
1750, quilting in America had become a universal form of needlework, practiced by any
female who could hold a needle.3 Quilts not only were a necessity, but were also a
fundamental way women took pride in the fact that they were doing art; it also gave them
a way to pass down traditions.
In addition to these traditions in America during the 19th century, many quilts had
a specific purpose or function. Bridal quilts were made upon the engagement of a young
woman, and were made by her female friends. Freedom quilts were made for a man
turning 21, celebrating his freedom from childhood, and was made by his female friends.
Album quilts were the main quilts made to show off, and they were comprised of
different blocks and usually had a theme correlating to an important issue at that time.
And finally, Mourning quilts were made upon the death of a family member or close
friend.4 Depending on the material used to make the quilt, the purpose and design would
differ. Many times, when women made quilts to show off, they put a great deal of detail
into the design, and also went through many steps in order to make their art durable.
2 Norma Broude, Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (Colorado:
Westview Press, 1982), 331.
3 Ibid., 334-335.
4 Ibid., 338-341.

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Quilts are probably the best example of the artistic credit that was refused to women, and
show how women used their gender as an advantage taking up needlework to convey
their interest and proficiency in art.
Now taking the focus off of the feminist movement political changes, there must
now be an emphasis on how woman artists in the 20th century conveyed their socially
hidden truths through their art. One artist that helps best describe the disjunction between
women and the male dominated society, as well as creative genius, is Judy Chicago with
her work The Dinner Party (Figure 1), exhibited in 1979, measuring 46 feet on each side
of an equilateral triangle. In her installation, Chicago uses mixed media, and the main
shape that appears is an equilateral triangle that rests on a raised floor covered with
porcelain luster tiles. The triangle is hollow and on the outside the audience views 39
dinner settings (plates, silverware, and a cup) that represent different important women,
both historically and mythically.5 Each plate has a significant meaning, the defining time
and place of each women represented has the audience engulfed in the design. The nature
of Chicago’s inspiration was juxtaposition to “The Last Supper”, with the Christ figure
being appropriated be the primordial goddess.
Most of the plate images are organically abstract representations of “great women
who have been served up and consumed by history.” The apostles were chosen as
exemplars [that] struggled to change and improve the conditions for women. The
plates, then, are the center of the sacramental ritual; the woman are both honored
and sacrificed.6
By giving it this dual meaning, it helps the audience realize just how many women would
have had an affect if men had not covered up their work. In terms of form of the piece,
5 Norma Broude, The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (New York:
HarperCollins, 1992), 451.
6 Ibid., 453.

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line has been discussed as having a triangular form. Each plate and table setting also has
a different color scheme to it. Since Chicago used glazing and ceramics for the table
settings, all the colors are vivid and energetic to the viewer’s eye. Another part of form is
where light plays an important part in the piece, because there are lights above the
triangular artwork in order to convey The Dinner Parties three-D form in the space of
whatever museum it is displayed.
To take the analysis further, anybody viewing this work can take a look into space
and perspective. This means that there are distinctions between mass and volume. Judy
Chicago’s Dinner Party shows mass through the dinner settings, which look bulky and
dense, but are contrasted upon the volume of the void that is in the center of the triangle.
There is no need to investigate the possibilities of perspective because the perspective is
such that one has to take a full trip around the work in order to get a correct perspective
in space, presenting multiple viewpoints.
It is important not to forget anything when evaluating art that is fundamental in
changing the way the masses see a certain subject, in this case, women’s oppression in
history. The composition itself is very complex with the grouping of narrative dinner
settings. The balance is symmetrical due to the equilateral triangle that piece is set within.
The scale of the piece is big compared to the focal point, with each side of the triangle
spanning about 46 feet on each side, giving it a monumental sense which works in
tandem with Chicago’s symbolic implications. Rhythm and repetition is prevalent due to
the repeated dinner setting motif, giving the piece a never-ending quality with the triangle
itself.

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In a deeper inspection, there is an obvious piece to the puzzle that many overlook;
this is the medium and process of The Dinner Party. The medium is easier to explain then
the process, featuring ceramics, embroidery, needlework, flatware, painting, and
calligraphy.7 The composite of all these materials goes to show how innovative and how
talented Judy Chicago and her women colleagues were at the time The Dinner Party was
created. The progress of this piece was slow, but there were many women behind the
scenes, making The Dinner Party possible. It took 4 years, from 1974 to 1979 to produce,
with the contribution of almost 400 men and women. The studio in which the many
women worked was not a setting that was taken lightly. Even though there were large
number of people working together on this piece, it was a private space; there was a
psychological and mental space of the studio that was not accessible to the casual visitor,
this was a catalyst for much of the creative aspects of The Dinner Party. 8
Historically, it is proven that gender is a main motive behind the oppression of
women, however during the feminist movement in the United States in the 20th century,
race also became an important part in making progress in equality among genders. It also
raised awareness of equality across all female links. Around this time in America, the
Civil Rights struggle was in full force. This meant that women not only had to deal with
their oppression, but women of color had to worry about both the color of their skin and
their gender, neither of which they had any control over. At first, the feminist movement
did not see much racial integration. In time feminist leaders retained a utopian view of
sisterhood, and eliminated race from the picture altogether. It must have felt great to be
7 Norma Broude, The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (New York:
HarperCollins, 1992), 452-453
8 Ibid, 459.

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allies with those who had been your oppressors for so many years.9 In this vision of
sisterhood, there was no longer a “movement that [placed] the class interest of privileged
women, especially white women, over that of all other women”.10 This meant that there
was equality that was seen in two different areas, both in race and in gender, through the
feminist movement. This unity is something that men could never achieve because they
had not felt the pains of oppression; therefore, in their world both socially and politically,
there was nothing to fight for except power. Women had one thing in common, no matter
their race or gender; they had all been oppressed for long enough, and were ready for
change in policy throughout the world.
In talking about a change in policy throughout the world, many women in the
feminist movement of the United States had a colonized mind set. This meant that the
main American feminists of the 20th century were trying to solve problems worldwide
without taking into account that they might be judging discriminating culture, ultimately
undermining their own principles of equality. In decolonizing the feminist movement, it
would primarily focus on what sexist practices have in relation to women’s body
globally.11 Instead of focusing on traits and traditions of women globally, it would focus
on the oppression and sexist acts against women’s bodies. In this sense, women’s view of
a utopian sisterhood would politically help raise awareness for other women across the
world. Ultimately, the goal of visionary feminists is to live in a world without
discrimination based on race or gender, where all humans could share an ecological
mindset that would focus on how everyone on the planet can have access to peace and
9 Bell Hooks, Feminism is for Everybody (Cambridge: South End Press, 2000), 56.
10 Ibid., 58.
11 Bell Hooks, Feminism is for Everybody (Cambridge: South End Press, 2000), 46.

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well being.12 Since this mindset cannot be sustained without the whole of society
agreeing, women in America found it most useful to express their angst through art.
Letting race and gender fade into the feminist movement’s ‘melting pot’ mindset, one can
focus on more ambiguous subjects that are not always visible assistants to the
movement’s progress.
Though overcoming race and gender are two main building blocks in the
development of feminism, there is a subject that is often overlooked, that may soon
become a source of new allies for feminist, and oppressed women everywhere. The ally
that may have potential to help the recognition of women’s oppression is the homosexual
man. This alliance should have compatibility because the homosexual man has been
oppressed just as much as his female correspondent, and like his female friend, wishes
only for equality that until this point, has not been granted. Would this mean that “the gay
male intellectual has a fundamentally different stake in feminism then his heterosexual
‘counter-part’?”13 In answering this question, one must remember that throughout history
the male gaze has looked at a women’s body as a sexual piece of meat, and in a male
dominated society like America, one is taught and urged to lust after women. In real
world experience, there would definitely be a different stake for a gay man in feminism,
than most American heterosexual males. The homosexual man has no male gaze that is
pressured upon woman, and the women in a homosexual’s eyes are not masturbatory.
The main problem or political obstacle with a gay man being an exemplary male
feminist is the publicized myth of homosexual gynophobia towards the female body.14
12 Ibid., 110-111.
13 Alice Jardine, Men in Feminism (London: Methuen inc., 1987), 219.
14 Ibid., 220-221.

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One could argue the fact that a gay man cannot fight on the side of any feminist because
by being gay weakens his alliance from the very beginning. Of course, the gynophobia,
or fear of the female body, is the all to familiar conditioned attack from a ‘straight’, anti-
feminist male. It is very easy to use this argument against a gay man because in theory
the claim is true. Many gay men do not have a fear of the female body, as much as they
have and aversion to it. It is a simple preference that can easily be seen as a fear. The
same could be said to the male who has an aversion to a female’s artwork.
The only reason it makes the most sense for a homosexual to be a feminist, or at
least considered in a lower caste of feminism is because of a common link between a gay
man and the American feminist. This common factor between the two would be
misogyny and homophobia, in which “the scapegoating of women often appears in
conjunction with a scapegoating of homosexual men.” 15 This link often brings to mind a
certain amount of unity, a unity that connects the gay male with a feminist. It gives
enough reason for an alliance between sexual identity and feminism to form, and allows
yet another gap to be bridged. Feminism focuses not only on issues of gender, but can
also be the building blocks for the advance of other problems like social class, race, and
in this case sexuality.
The history of feminism and art is perpetually changing, just like the very society
we live in. Artists from past to present have been working endlessly to see equality come
into fruition. As female artist throughout history were denied ownership for obvious
creativity, they have also been breaking barriers that women never could before. With the
slow decay of discrimination and oppression in the United States, the minority will
15 Alice Jardine, Men in Feminism (London: Methuen inc., 1987), 221.

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always confront the issues of gender, social class, sexual orientation and even race.
Change often happens through expression, and female artists like Judy Chicago
manifested there need for change, and paved the way for many women artist to come.
When anyone is discriminated against, it gives them an advantage; a chance to join forces
with the others just likes them that have been plagued. The need for equality is ever
growing, and our society needs to realize that the only way to resolve an issue is to work
together as one, and fix issues in a way that takes all sides into account. Only then will
the world begin to heal.

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Figure 1: Chicago, Judy. The Dinner Party. 1974-1979, Brooklyn Museum, New York
City. Mixed Media.
Source: Chicago, Judy. The Dinner Party. From Brooklyn Museum. JPEG,
Http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/. April 27,
2012.

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Bibliography
Broude, Norma. Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, 1982.
Broude, Norma. The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. New York,
NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
Hooks, Bell. Feminism is for Everybody. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000.
Jardine, Alice. Men in Feminism. New Fetter Lane, London: Methuen inc., 1987.
Women Art Revolution. DVD. Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson. 2012; United
States: Zeitgeist Films, 2011.