On Feminism: Nolan Terrill

Throughout the course of history, women have been looked down upon.  Men have been the dominant players in typical American/world industries as well as the competitive business world, which pushed women into the background. After the forties, the tides began to turn. Women were establishing the ability to discover their true potential through various jobs in industry; especially in wartime. It wasn’t until the civil rights movement in the sixties when women stepped up to the plate as crucial, beneficial leaders, consequently convincing the nation and the world that they were a force to be reckoned with. Today women can be seen in almost every industry. They possess positions as supervisors, managers, and even CEO’s. The art world has captured this growing trend toward making the rights of women equal to those of men.  Women are at the forefront of this feminist style because they are the primary creators of the pieces that shed light on what the potential of the female sex is. A few popular artists include Judy Chicago, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’ Keefe; however there are many more artists that fly “under the radar.” One of these lesser known is Maria Friberg. Her exhibit, Almost There, at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (in Brooklyn, New York) consists of only photographs that seem to level the playing field between the two sexes. She shows the viewer how men and women, when in the right situations, can appear to have minute differences.  There is one image that stands out from the rest, though.

In this picture, four men lay in a pool. They seem to be helpless; trapped in existence. The men also appear to be weightless, meaning that they are of no importance to life around them and that their actions will not affect how they are viewed in the eyes of the public, or in this case, the water in the pool.  Each male is wearing a suit, which are all black and of the same style; this helps to group them together in order to signify the male sex as a whole or to show that they must conform to those around them before they will be fully accepted by the rest of the world. These traits and ideas are similar to the rest of the photographs that come from Friberg’s grouping. In each of these, the men are “fully capable of creating control, while at the same time it doesn’t seem possible for them to influence their own situation.” This description is also valid for how women felt prior to the sixties, for they were somewhat close to being independent but it was society that placed constraints upon them that disabled them from becoming their own, individual person.

Feminism is something that I endorse and agree with. Women are capable of being productive leaders. In the political arena, Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin, even though controversial and polar opposites in opinion, have shown that they can influence a nation to vote for a certain political agenda and to convince people of a certain party to vote for in an election. Everyone in this nation knows who they are and how they are persons to put full attention towards.  Women bring to the table more critical views, as well as a totally different style of thinking than that of men. They are known to be more persuasive because of their persistence to accomplish a task and their unbreakable support for what they think is right and wrong; not just because of their looks. However, Women are the picture of beauty and are in most cases the definition of support. They are typically more sympathetic to a person’s cause and consider the full picture before jumping to a conclusion. Women may not be as physically strong as men, but are just as, if not more, dominant in their expressive and thinking capabilities.

Whether it is in art or politics, women are able to perform at the same level as men. Through the feminist movement they have shown how they believe they are equal to men. Artists, such as Maria Friberg, express their frustration to those who don’t believe that the female sex should be treated like the male sex. She displays this by putting men and women in situations that compare how masculine women can be to how feminine men can be. Friberg also puts the men into scenarios that make them seem of less importance or perhaps as a way to bring them down from their stereotypical high horse. Some people are still living in the past, for today is the age of women and minorities in general. Every day there is something profound happening to someone who most people would have never believed it to happen to: people are being proven wrong. It just goes to show that with perseverance and confidence, anyone can achieve something that overcomes the former belief that the unachievable can’t be done.

Brooklyn Museum- Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for the Arts: Feminist Based: Maria Friberg

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/mariafriberg.php?i=173