Gender Roles, Sex, Power (Post 2)

Gender Roles, Sex, Power (Post 2)

     In the past, women were seen as an inferior race placed on the earth solely to fulfill men's pleasures.  One can see the expected roles of women especially in the Middle Ages.  Chadwick explains that "women's social roles remained circumscribed by a Christian ethic that stressed obedience and chastity...maternal and domestic responsibility... feudal legal system...[and] control of property" (Chadwick 44).  Back in the day, women's main role was to follow in their husbands shadows, rear children, take care of the home and cook and clean.  The biggest change that occurred was that women were encouraged to take part in the management of family property and in general economic life, such as masonry and embroidery.  During the war, most men were drafted as soldiers so women were given the right to take on jobs at home that men were responsible for, such as managing property.  As for royalty, women were allowed to become rulers of small principalities and Chadwick points out that "the eleventh and twelfth centuries encouraged large numbers of women to take up religious lives" (Chadwick 53).  Women were seeking to escape harsh treatment of their kind and their only solution was to become nuns.


     Roles for women changed drastically throughout the Renaissance and into the 19th century.  As more women became nuns, they soon began to sell their art for their foundations.  Women were still kept away from public activities relating to the government, but Chadwick states that "a literate wife was becoming essential to the mercantile families" (Chadwick 68).  As the silk, wool and banking industries grew, more commercial families benefited from having their wives active in the business.  One can see that women were being granted more freedom with being able to work, but they were given work that would be useful in household duties.  Chadwick goes into further detail by repeating that "Women's virtues are chastity and motherhood: her domain is the private world of the family" (Chadwick 71).  One can see that even though women were given some freedom, they were still seen as inferior to men. 
     

Sofonisba Anguissola Self-Portrait (1561)

     But, as time went on, more women went into painting, which was an acceptable pass-time as long as they did it in private and the only time that they would get a little recognition would be if they were born into artist families or married into a family that supported them.  One artist that opened the possibility of painting as a socially acceptable profession was Sofonisba Anguissola.  Chadwick explains that "she paints herself as if she were being painted...its positioning within patriarchal structures of knowledge, and the role of woman as an object of representation" (Chadwick 78).  Anguissola opened the idea to self-portraiture, where the woman was no longer seen as an object of the male gaze.  She was also the first woman to get recognition and respect for her work.

                                                                                         

Artemisia Gentileschi Judith Decapitating Holofernes (1618)

     During the seventeenth century, paintings began to change completely as more women began to create art.  Instead of painting self-portraits or other religious themes, they began to create works of art that touched upon images of women retaliating against the male gaze.  Chadwick states that "the growth of naturalism in the seventeenth century led to a new emphasis on the depiction of courage and physical prowess in representation" (Chadwick 106).  A prime example of retaliation was Artemisia Gentileschis' Judith Decapitating Holofernes.  She uses a very dark background to emphasize the two women beheading the men.  In that time, women were viewed as sensitive creatures, which was odd because     in the painting, the women were angrily staring at Holofernes with evil gleaming in their eyes as they perform a "manly" deed. 

     As painting became extremely common, women began to branch off completely by painting flowers and botanical illustrations.  "Women were...critical to the development of the floral still-life, a genre highly esteemed in the seventeenth century but, by the nineteenth, dismissed as an inferior one ideally suited to the limited talents of women amateurs" (Chadwick 129).  Chadwick goes into detail about how this particular type of painting required patience and a steady hand which women had due to housework, so society accepted it solely because it was an inferior art technique compared to what the men were painting.  By the eighteenth century, there was a large influx in women artists painting publicly.  But, Chadwick explains the real reason why it was becoming more socially acceptable was because as long as the women were "emphasizing beauty, gracefulness, and modesty" (Chadwick 139), they were allowed to paint.

     Throughout their growth as artists, women came across many obstacles.  One main problem was being born into a poor or conservative family.  Most of the women artists that were receiving recognition was mainly because their family was full of artists, so in turn they became well-known artists due to their support from home and/or they married into rich families where their husbands supported them.  Another issue they came across was that the conservative society did not accept their work.  Lastly, society believed that women's artwork was actually created by their male teachers or they copied works created by men and signed their name on it.

Rosa Bonheur The Horse Fair (1855)

     Finally, in the nineteenth century, women overcame these challenges by fighting the battle of prejudice together.  Chadwick explains that "women artists risked "unsexing" themselves" (Chadwick 117).  Women were slowly realizing that the only way to stand up and fight was if they created sisterhoods to break away from the social norm.  The first woman photographer came from the nineteenth century, Julia Margaret Cameron, who saw photography as an art.  Edmonia Lewis became the first African American woman sculptor and Rosa Bonheur introduced animal paintings as she used her art to express the realities between male and female.  Chadwick explains that "images of animals frequently symbolized the vices and virtues of women" (Chadwick 192).  This can be seen in The Horse Fair, where the horses symbolize women who are finally breaking free from the male grasp even though the men are trying to hold on.


Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 2002.