Please take a gander at my final project! It was a fun experiment. Oh and you have to read it in reverse order.... sorry. (click here)
My project integrates both personal observation and scientific data. I have surveyed a large group of women ranging form 21-70 asking them all one question - As a woman, what has been the most significant moment in your life thus far. The answers were surprising. I report my finding and reflect on them. I share my own personal answer and discuss the outcome in visual and social culture.
link please :)
ReplyDeleteyay! :)
DeleteI also found the text Live Through This the most provoking. Probably because it so directly tied to my research interests/directions--constitution of artist identity and writing as an important stylized repetitive act encountered with those visual artists who are persistent in their creative practice and either influence or early in substantiating paradigm shifts.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to me that Motherhood would be the most significant moments tied to an awareness of femininity...hmmm perhaps an essentialist experience. Ha. It does have the strongest link between conventions of being a "woman" and biology. Though perhaps the significance of motherhood occurs regardless of the act of birthing [adoption and such] or the gender of "mother/father."
yes I did find it so interesting that many women responed to their biology.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting Katharine - that what you thought you'd hear, stories of the working woman conquering all, were the farthest thing from what they actually talked about. Further proof that Susan J Douglas hit the nail on the head when looking at where media intersected, interrupted and tried to immobilize the movement. I love the aesthetics of your blog, the background complements your reports as well. Its very inviting and has a nurturing friendly tone providing a place of rest as you invite us in to look at this survey and discuss women issues. Great job!
ReplyDeleteKatharine,
ReplyDeleteI am reminded via your post of Angelica Kauffman's work especially " Cornelia pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures" painted in 1785.Her father supported her decision to become a painter.While neoclassicism was a
more masculine style, there was growing number of buddingfemale artists who were able to take this very dignified and elevated style and make it their own.Between Cornelia and the woman visitor stands Cornelia’s daughter, Sempronia, a figure who was not mentioned in the original text of the story. The decision to include her is generally accepted as an effort to show the naïveté of a child and her dependence on her mother to help her develop into a morally upstanding woman and to lead her in the right philosophical direction.Here virtue ,a neo classical given,is depicted as a strength.My wife had also recollected a story of her mother , Chicago business woman who took over a service company when her father had died.She wanted to be a dress designer and,in fact, designed her wedding dress which my wife had wornShe headed up the chamber of commerce on the Chicago south side, arole only men had.She dressed like Elizabeth Taylor and held her own a midst businessmen who sometimes chased her around her desk.
I gosh I love that painting. Never got it, always thought it was corny... till I had Zoe.
DeleteI was especially intrigued by the quote regarding menopause and defining one's self as "mother" for so long. Successful parenting, by definition, would require a parent to grow obsolete at some point, but the harsh, biological reminder has a special finality that must be particularly difficult when juxtaposed with your children getting older, moving away, and needing to define and identify yourself as something beyond "parent." I wonder how the masculine parallel will fell in comparison when I get there.
ReplyDeleteYes Justin, I think that my goal is to be obsolete as a parents. Means I did my job right. I feel the same way about my teaching. I want my students to surpass me.
ReplyDeleteHi Katharine,
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I thought the quotes were so interesting. Every one of us experiences our lives, and gender, in different ways. Hearing other people's stories can help us put our own into perspective. I think we try to relate to each other, but in truth, we can only know our own experiences and share in the knowledge that others go through the same/and different things too. And that is okay, we don't all have the same voice, but we all have a voice.
Katharine, this is a stellar integration of quotes, statistics, blurbs from course readings, images, and photographs! I can see YOU in all of it! How wonderful. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKatharine -
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your thoughts on feminism and motherhood, especially the emphasis on duality. I can see how that duality is ever-present for us as women (and men, as well, but I cannot really speak for them), regardless if we serve our country, our family, or our students. I love your analysis of the Cassatt paintings; such a small detail, but it truly speaks volumes about the hard/soft, gentle/firm, loving/run-for-the-hills harmonies that we as women bounce back and forth between.