Women in the Art World
Women in the Art World Women have always been seen as an object to define the meaning of beauty. For centuries now women have been seen as the art piece and not the artist. There aren’t many women contributions to art from back then because women were seen as human beings just meant to cook, clean and be nice to gaze upon. Women weren’t recognized for their intelligence and if a woman was outspoken about it, she was either shot down or considered to be that of a manly nature. As Aristotle said, “…between male and female, the former is by nature superior and ruler, the latter inferior and subject”(Adadevoh). The quote by Aristotle shows us well of what man thought of woman back in that time. There has been a drastic change in the view of women as artists, as equal rights for women made itself more prevalent in today’s society. Women were always looked down upon as only being useful for housework and making items that can be of use. Women were only seen as objects of beauty and never for how smart they really are. It was hard for women to establish themselves as artists because of the gender bias that was so prevalent back in that time and still a little prevalent in today’s society as well. Since women were only seen as put on earth for mans pleasure and to obey him they were given no rights to be able to be seen as anything else. They were seen as being far from genius and far from being able to do anything but domesticated womanly house chores. Another reason why there aren’t many women artists is because these historians are usually male. These male historians pick out what art they would like to bring to light in history. Museum curators are usually male dominated and of course these men are going to pick artwork that appeals to their eye mostly nudes of women or artists that are men. Feminism has been a growing epidemic not only in the theory of fighting domesticated views but also in the art world as well. Women have done a lot to gain their equality in
Cited: Adadevoh, Irene. "RETHINKING TOKENISM IN MASCULINISM” Article Number 221. Where Ideas Run Free. Philica, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. .
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
Freeland, Cynthia A. But Is It Art?: An Introduction to Art Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
Nochlin, Linda. "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists." Women Artists. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. .