By definition, feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis on the equality of the sexes” but feminism carries different meanings to different people and it’s a constantly expanding term. Feminist art started in the 60’s during 2nd wave feminism and the art being created focused on the female body, personal experience, and gender equality. In the 70’s, the Art Workers Coalition and Women Artists in Revolution formed to address female artist rights in high art. They protested the MoMA and The Whitney and female artists at The Whitney rose 13% in one year because of this. In the 80’s, feminist art focused more on the destruction of male dominant social perception. Now, feminist art embraces females having beauty and brains and the fact that they can have both.
A female artist left out of art history is Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. She was an English artist who worked in Scotland and was one of the major defining artists of the “Glasgow Style” in the 1890s.
One of the most frustrating things to me personally is the wage gap between men and women. A lot of people think the wage gap no longer exists, but women with a PhD in psychology earn on average $39,648 LESS than men in the same field. This is the career field I want to go in, so it infuriates me that I could make almost $40,000 less than a man with the exact same qualifications as me.
Another big problem is toxic masculinity and the male gaze. The male gaze is the theory that visual media is created from a straight man’s POV and that it sexualizes and objectifies women. I think this is all over media in movies, commercials, tv, art, advertisements, etc. Toxic masculinity is also everywhere. I don’t understand why it’s so terrible to some people if a little boy wants to play with “girl” toys or wear “girl” clothes or vice versa. People, especially kids, should be able to play with and wear what they want regardless of the gender society put on it.
I think a big issue with feminism is that a lot of people who aren’t educated about it just see it as the trendy, over the top, Tumblr feminists online who are extremely anti men and just problematic and annoying. Feminism is not about hating men and I don’t get how someone can call themselves a feminist while saying how much they hate men and that men are the scum of the earth. Feminism is about EQUALITY. They’re just being hypocritical saying that women are better than men and that men are terrible. I also wish more feminists would include women of color and trans women when the fight for equality.
Now for the more controversial part. Can a woman make non feminist art and should they? For me, the answer is yes. I’m a woman and a feminist and I’ve never made a feminist art piece. Does that make me a bad feminist or even a bad woman? No. It’s just not the type of art that I make and there’s nothing wrong with that. I also don’t think we should use labels like “female artist”. Personally, I don’t want to be viewed as a “female artist/musician/psychologist”. I just want to be an artist/musician/psychologist. I play drums and there has been so many instances where people will be like “wow you’re so good for a girl” and I think that just adds to the problem. Why can’t they just say “wow you’re so good!” ? Why is it shocking that a girl can play an instrument?
I think feminist art needs to go in a more intersectional feminism direction. I also think we need to move away from labels like “female artist”.