(Sound people make in art galleries)
(walking)
(Sound people make in art galleries)
(scream in horror)
(Soulless narration begins)
What the hell just happened?
Why did people praise this painting but screamed in disgust when they saw this painting?
They look the same?
The painting on the right side is titled Venus of Urbino by Titian, an Italian painter who was a member of the Venetian school
As the name suggests, it is a painting of a goddess named Venus.
The painting on the left side is titled Olympia by Édouard Manet, a painter who took part in both the realist and impressionist movement.
The woman in nude was not a goddess but a  young prostitute and a model who existed in real life.
When this piece first exhibited in the Salon of 1865, audience were shocked due to the realness.
In those days, women were to cover up their sexual appearance and act conservative in public.
but still be sexual when males need them to be
Fast forward hundreds of years, a teacher in France uploaded Gustav Courbet’s The Origin of the World on social media.
And it was taken down due to its ‘sexual’ content.
Today, people  say equality for all genders but when the society is primarily lopsided due to male dominancy, gender equality is surely not enough and gender equity needs to be pushed more to create a balanced society.
The fact that women have to fight to be at the same ‘level’ as men shows that women are being controlled by men.
Jeff Koons showed how women were portrayed in his Pink Panther. A blonde  female figurine with no top. barely covering her exposed breasts hugging the character pink panther.
Just a sexual object and eye candy for men.
But what if she's more than a sexual object?
Like Mary Cassatt? One of the few female impressionists who gave us a marvelous woman’s point of view in her painting The Child’s Bath.
Or Morisot another female impressionist who filled her canvas with well dressed women in Summer’s Day unlike how men viewed women.
Lee Krasner? an abstract expressionist painter who beautifully painted The Seasons and influenced her husband Pollock to start drip painting.
Despite being talented, they were bound to their roles society assigned them.
Cassatt had to take on the role of both a painter and a caretaker of her parents.
Morisot couldn’t study art at the academy during her time due to gender issues.
Lee Krasner was overshadowed by Pollock during her lifetime.
Having covered art works dating from 1850s to the late 90s  and some of early 2000s,
less than 50 female artists were mentioned. This is including female patrons.
That’s only 17%
No wonder why Judy Chicago came up with the idea for The Dinner Party when she realized that women’s achievements were almost non exist in history.
Inviting and honoring only women, the dinner party celebrates women’s achievements and acknowledges women’s oppression.
But… is this enough?
Huddling and making their own league within a league is not the solution to harmonize the society.
Men, who have the social power as of now, needs to not only view women as equals but also to treat them as equals and provide more for them to balance the lopsided society men have created.
