Do Individuals, or Culture Own Sex?

Different cultures have determined and prescribed how women ought to portray themselves, based on gender roles, and sexuality, since the beginning of time. This show is a collection of works, ranging from the Paleolithic Period (the Stone Age), to the mid twentieth century. The viewer can see how women have changed over time, from being portrayed as the victims who have no control, to women who harness how culture and men choose for them to act, and end up making an industry out of it. Still, women are being used and mistreated, based solely on their genitalia. Most people would assume that men are the instigators of this notion, however, both men and women have placed standards on women based solely on sex. This show invites the viewer to put himself or herself into the shoes of the characters and recognize the ways that culture has defined sexuality for women. In a sense, men have owned and defined women’s sexuality since the beginning of time: through rape and abduction, beauty standards such as corsets and heels, and sexual expectations. Can artworks prove this to be true? Is this still applicable to twenty-first century life today, living in the postmodern feminist age?

Artist: Unknown

Title: Woman of Willendorf

Date: c. 22,000-21,000 BCE

Medium: Oolitic limestone

Size: 4.5” Tall

Natural History Museum, Vienna

The Woman of Willendorf comes from the Paleolithic Period, commonly known as the Stone Age. It is 4.4 inches tall, and is made out of limestone, a material that lasts through ages. The woman, or Venus, represents exaggerated sexual features on a female nude body, as the goal for women during this time. Fertility was regarded as the mark of the ‘true woman,’ and this is representative of society, no matter how ancient, deciding for women what is to be sought after. What happened to the women during this time who were infertile, or who did not possess large breasts? The woman also does not have a face, which makes some art historians assume that women did not have the same amount of freedom of a voice or personality as men did; something of high importance in 21^st century America.

Artist: Nicolas Poussin 

Title: The Abduction of the Sabine Women

Date: 1633-1634

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 60 7/8 x 82 5/8 in. (154.6 x 209.9 cm)

MET: #46.160

This famous painting shows a group of Roman men who decide to forcibly retain the Sabine women. The women are taken from their children, parents, and the leader of this ordeal is Romulus. The painting’s compositing from far away shows a diagonal from the upper right corner to the bottom left corner of the canvas, with Romulus and his leaders standing above the scene, and with women as the low point, as they are on the ground, or seized in the arms of their rapists. Poussin not only paints sexual violence, but also helplessness, as the women are seen as weak, fragile, submissive figures- a stark contrast to Gentileschi’s shift in cultural ideologies. The men who take these women to be their wives strip them of their identity and sexual immaculacy, taking their flesh and re-defining their purpose.

Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi

Title: Judith Slaying Holofernes

Date: 1610

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 158.8 cm × 125.5 cm ((6' 6" X 5' 4") 78.33 in × 64.13 in)

 Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy, Florence

This painting sticks out in the exhibition, because it takes a shift from women who submit and accept the gender roles and violence, to a reaction. Judith is slaying the man who is her alleged rapist, as he is sleeping, after being in a drunken state. This is painted by a woman, who encourages other women to view her art as a piece which shows powerful women, triumphing over powerful men. This painting gives the viewer an equal playing field, and does not represent women in the common submissive, possessed asset to a man’s life. Instead, it represents a gradual shift away from tradition, into female energy, ability, and capacity. It is one of the first artworks which shows a female portraying male actions and attributes. 

Artist: Édouard Manet

Title: Olympia

Date: 1863

Medium: Oil Paint

Size: w1900 x h1300 mm

Musée d'Orsay

Manet’s painting, Olympia, was displayed at the 1865 Salon in France, originally. The painting was recognized as a scandal, as the prostitute lying in bed is staring directly at the viewer, with skin which resembles elastic, and a flower in her hair. The reason that this fits into the exhibition, is the element of shame. The viewer of the painting is not just part of an audience, but is a client of the prostitute. The fact that this painting brought about feelings of shock and angst is due to the reality of raw truth, which is that men would go to prostitutes, and commit adultery against their wives, and now it is in the public light. Olympia is heartbreaking and tugs at the hearts of women who have been cheated on, or men who have committed these horrific actions. Manet fearlessly draws the pathos through this work.

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Title: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Date: June-July 1907

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm)

The Museum of Modern Art, New York City

British art historian Richard Dorment says, “…. [Artist’s] work isn’t really about women; it’s about men and how they look at and think about women. Men use various strategies to neutralize or control desire. One is to fetishize the female body…[while] another is for the man to appropriate it.” This quote emphasizes the critique that Picasso had taken towards how culture is catered to men and their desires. This is indicated by the sexually inviting poses of the bodies, and it makes the viewer uncomfortable with the agency of the women by the fact that they are looking at the viewer. Notice how the faces of the women in the brothel are ape-like and beastly, and do not show emotion or character. Not only men, but also culture has chosen to objectify and de-humanize women. The men who visit these brothels only go for selfish, sexual satisfaction and choose to look at a body rather than a human.

Artist: Reginald Marsh 

Title:  Burlesque (also known as Irving Place Burlesque)

Date: circa 1930-1933

Medium: Egg tempera on canvas, mounted on Masonite

Size: Sight: 36 x 48 inches (91.4 x 121.9 cm)

The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN

In this painting, men in suits who are assumed to be wealthy, sit in comfortable chairs at a grand theatre, with a composed demeanor, some smoking cigars. The manner in which the men gaze at the women clearly arrests their attention, as they watch these women perform, wearing clothes which are designed specifically for the male eye. The women represent a fraction of the painting, in the back-left corner of the frame, and the men represent the majority of the composition. Marsh emphasizes the fact that the men are in the majority and ‘hold’ the most space, in terms of socioeconomic status, dominance in the way that women are displayed to them, and entitlement to be allowed to engage in this type of sexual promiscuity.