Women and the Arts

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Women, Stereotypes and the Arts

SUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTER

NEWSLETTERISSUE 3 Spring 2009MCLA

Illustration by Raechel Doughty

InspiringWomen:TheGuerrillaGirlspage2

WomenArtists:R

enaissancetoModern

Daypage

3

Animation Without Representation?: Women in the Comics Industries page 4

Feminism

andtheArtspage5

WomenArtist

s:GreatestHitspage

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Women, Stereotypes and the ArtsSUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTER

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This is the first instance in the history of our Inspiring

Women feature in which the identity of the subject re-

mains secret. The Guerrilla Girls, masked crusaders fight-

ing for justice in the art world and beyond, take on thenames of dead women artists such as Frida Kahlo, AnaMendieta, Alma Thomas and Georgia OKeefe . One mem-

ber (who did not care for the idea of adopting others

names and instead calls herself GG1) said in an interview

that anonymity not only protects the art careers of theGuerrilla Girls, but takes the focus off of the Girls person-

alities and works and puts it where it belongs: on the is-sues.

The issues the Guerrilla Girls have tackled since

their inception in 1985 have been many and varied. Theirposter campaigns have named galleries guilty of discrimi-

nation, called out sexist and racist attitudes and practices

(in the art world, in Hollywood, and in general), and com-mented on homelessness, war, and reproductive rights.The Guerrilla Girls have also published several books, in-

cluding The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the His-tory of Western Art, The Guerrilla Girls Art Museum Activity

Book, and Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The GuerrillaGirls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. The groupalso gives lectures on college campuses around the world.

While the criticism the group dishes out is harsh,their messages are infused with wit and humor. Combined

with bright colors and outlandish images and outfits, the

Guerrilla Girls bring fun and joy to the esoteric world of

art, the arduous work of activism, and that ever-intimidating word, feminism.

The Guerrilla Girls recently granted the MCLA

Womens Center permission to adapt their latest book,

Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers, into a theatrical perform-ance. It is happening on campus in Venable Theater on

March 11th, and at the Main Street Stage in North Adams onMarch 12th. Both performances begin at 7:30 pm, and thecost of admission is two dollars. Proceeds will go the Eliza-

beth Freeman Center, which provides services to the survi-vors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Take a look to the right at some of the GuerrillaGirls campaigns through the years. Over one hundred

posters are available at their website, guerrillagirls.com,and fans are often encouraged to use them for activism of

their own. When asked how many Guerrilla Girls there are,

Lee Krasner responded, We don't have any idea. We se-

cretly suspect that all women are born Guerrilla Girls. It's

just a question of helping them discover it. For sure, thou-

sands; probably, hundreds of thousands; maybe, millions.The last few lines of their Bedside Companion to the History

of Western Art are a call to future Guerrilla Girls: Write

letters, make posters, make trouble.

Sources:Guerrilla Girls: Fighting discrimination with facts, humor and fake

fur. 2008. Guerrilla Girls, Inc. 3 Feb 2009 .

Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerrilla Girl's Bedside Companion to the

History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.

Inspiring Women:

The Guerrilla Girlsby Raechel Doughty

Just a matter of time? This billboard image is from 2005. The Girls

made a billboard like this in 1989there were 2%more female

modern artists displayed in the Metropolitan Museum 16 years ago!

A poster addressing tokenism from 1990.

A

stickerba

sedontheir2003book,

Bitches,BimbosandBallbreakers.


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SUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTERWomen, Stereotypes and the Arts

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In the earlys e v e n t i e s ,

Joan Kelley

wrote a pa-per entitled

Did Women

Have a Ren-

a i s s a n c e ?

Little research

of any kind had been done on the topic. Though morefeminists and scholars are now looking at the subjectof female visual artists during the time of the Renais-

sance, little has been uncovered. Is this becausewomen were not interested in creative expression?

What could have held them back? How far have we

come today?

In 1997, Meryl Zwanger began to reexamine

the long held belief that early modern women were onan equal par with men (Zwanger). Her conclusion is

that in most cases women were not allowed to publicly

express themselves creatively. It was a common belief

that women did not have the capacity to be creativethinkers. However, daughters of noblemen were ex-

pected to have limited talents in letters, music and the

arts. However, no one assumed that their skills wouldlead them to any kind of career. Those few who didsucceed were perceived as rare exceptions.

The pursuit of art was rarely encouraged for

women. The majority of the time female artists gave up

their brush, pen or vision, married and returned to theacceptable traditional life of housewife and mother.One such example is Caterina van Hemessen. From a

young age her father, a painter, taught her to paint andshe excelled at it. When she married an artist, her own

career ended. Caterina ended up dying at a youngage due to complications during childbirth.

These are a few rare occurrences of successfulwomen artists during the Renaissance. Lavinia

Fontana, also a daughter of a painter, grew up with

exceptional talents in art. Fontana never married. Oneof the most famous female artists of the Renaissanceera was Sofonisba Anguissola. The daughter of a no-

bleman, her talents for painting were praised byMichelangelo. Anguissola married twice, the first timeafter the age of forty. She later became a lady in wait-

ing and court painter to Queen Isabella of Valois,

Spain (Zwanger). Most of her paintings were of herand her four sisters, each of whom was fairly talented

herself. Only two of the five sisters married. This rare

occurrence of waiting so long to marry (especiallyduring the Renaissance), and defying societal norms,

shows the individual strength of these women.

There were two main stereotypes of women

during the Renaissance based on Eve and the VirginMary. Women who did not follow the traditional path

set before them by society (purity, marriage, wife,

mother, and servant) were considered impure andstereotyped as Eve, while those who followed the

rules were seen as the Virgin Mary. Women were

controlled by art to an extent. Pictures of the pure,virginal mother of Christ were often painted and juxta-

posed to portraits of Eve which often express decep-tion and seduction. In these two ways, limitations and

control were often placed on women during the timeof the Renaissance. However, painting was also a way

that female members of royalty established, strength-ened and reminded others of their power (Zwanger).

By hanging large portraits of themselves, they were

able to remind on-lookers of their power (size of the

painting) and wealth.In 2003 an exhibition entitled Women in Italian

Painting From the18th and 19th Centurieswas shown atthe Fondazione Pietro Accorsi (Morris). This gallery

included more than 100 pictures of women, by

women. However, when a visitor walks into this ex-hibit the first pieces of art seen are various etchings

by Giuseppe Mario Mitelli (16th century) which depict

various women with the Eve stereotype (greedy, dis-honest, vain, promiscuous). This blatant misogyny re-flects the general attitude toward women during the

Renaissance. The main attraction of women paintingwomen is a declaration of both the female voice and

defiant expression during the Renaissance era.Many paintings, sculptures, and visual crea-

tive expressions created by women have either been

destroyed or forgotten. While more research has re-cently begun by both feminist scholars and historians,much has already been lost.

Now that we have reached the twenty-first

century, now that women have the right to vote andare chipping away at the glass ceiling, the assumption

is that there ought to be a more equal ratio of women

to men in the visual arts. In the 1950s, according to J.Piirto, author of Why are there so few? (Creativewomen: Visual artists, mathematicians, scientists, musi-

cians), the number of creative men surpassed thenumber of creative women. The belief at that time wasthat women were unable to think abstractly, or

women were not ambitious (Piirto).

In the twenty-first century the only two crea-tive fields in which women are as successful as men

are creative writing and acting (Piirto). While many

women are considered successful creative writers,men are still more highly praised for their writing.

Women Artists: Renaissance to Modern Dayby Katheleen P. Hermance

Above: Sophonisba Anguissola

(continued on page 8)


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SUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTERSUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTERSUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTERWomen, Stereotypes and the Arts

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Batman. The Incredible Hulk. Iron Man. Spiderman I,II,and III. These titles have dominated the box office,

and why shouldnt they? A complex hero going up

against a truly insidious villainit is just a good story.Its no surprise to me that Hollywood has turned to

comics for inspiration. The medium has become ahome for the larger-than-life characters that havepopulated our cultural consciousness since the days of

Achilles, Hector, and Hippolyta. I have only one major

complaint about Hollywoods treatment of comics their depictions of women. Theyre just so boring! It

seems that all Rachel, Betty, and Mary Jane can do is

fawn over their superhero love interest. It isnt as if

women in comics are always portrayed so dully.To be sure, the American comic has had a

long and complex history with the American woman.

A portion of the in-house editorial code of DC Comics,a major publishing house, once read: The inclusion

of females in stories is specifically discouraged.Women, when used in plot structure, should be secon-dary in importance, and should be drawn realistically,

without exaggeration of feminine physical qualities.

No kidding.The Golden Age of American superhero

comics (roughly 1930-1940) was anything but goldenfor females. Women usually fell into three categories:sexualized villainess (often not too good at her job),

pretty girlfriend, or damsel in distress. A notable ex-

ception to this rule is Wonder Woman. The daughterof an Amazon queen, gifted with superhuman strength

and the ability to fly, she is an icon to women every-

where. If only Hollywood could get around to makinga movie about her! Joss Whedon was kicked off thescript-writing team for an early attempt at such a film

because the studio didn't understand his stoic vision ofWonder Woman, who didn't understand weakness.

In the decades after World War II, falling

reader membership and rising feminist consciousnesspushed comic editors to write more female characters

into stories. Not that these early attempts were par-

ticularly interesting or impressive: Batwoman laments

that no woman can ever equal the great Batman, Elasti-Girls husband forces her to leave her team, the Black

Cat is torn between her attraction to Spiderman and herown career as a cat burglar, etcetera. The development

of female characters in many ways mirrors womensstruggle to be taken seriously in the real world.

Indeed, women in comics today occupy rolesthat no reader in the 1930s would have dreamed of. X-

23, a young female clone, defeats Wolverine and other

powerful male enemies in combat. Ms. Marvel over-comes both her alcoholism and her fathers sexism to

become one of the greatest heroes in the world. Storm,

the first major female African-American character in

comics, has been a major power in the X-Men for years.Of course, some say, you have to be a blonde

with D-cups and a 20-inch waist to be a part of this club.The unrealistic perfection of female bodies in comics

has drawn a lot of criticism. However, one must look atthe male characters as well: Batmans sculpted chest,

Wolverines bulging biceps, the Hulks clothes-destroying musculature. ALL bodies in comics are de-

picted unrealistically in their focus on perfection, andthis is part of what makes a superhero as much as spe-

cial abilities or spandex clothing. Remember the DCban on strong female characters with exaggerated

feminine physical qualities.The point of a superhero isto be a symbol of inspiration and entertainment, not a

guidebook as to how ones body should look. Of

course, what gets exaggerated must fall in line with thegender binary one never sees a female superhero

with the musculature of a male hero, even if she isstronger than him.

An issue of more concern is the violence against

female characters in comic books. To be sure, every-

one in comics has violence perpetrated against them,but oftentimes it seems that powerful female characters

have to be punished. Not only do the girlfriends of

Animation Without Representation?: Women in the Comics IndustriesBy Alexandra Nichipor

(continued on page 8)


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Throughout history women have had

to fight against prejudice in order tobe educated in the arts, have their art

exhibited, and be taken seriously as

gifted artists. Taking off in the 1960s,the Feminist Art Movement attempted

to challenge these prejudices by hav-

ing talented women create art whichconfronted the misconception that

women are meant to be subservient and less inclined for

greatness compared to their male counterparts.Art by women exists in all the major art periods

but is difficult to identify because of sexism and the lack

of art historians who appreciate art by women. Vasesand other forms of art have been discovered from ancient

Greece and Rome crafted by women artists, however, art

created by women in this time period is difficult to iden-

tify because of two thousand years of decay and destruc-tion brought on by the war and purges. The Middle Ages

gave the world a plethora of women artists includingsculptors and needle workers. The Bayeux Tapestry, a

200 feet long tapestry that depicts the conquest of Eng-

land by Norman king William the Conqueror, was em-broidered entirely by women and is considered to be

one of the most important medieval objects to survive topresent day.

To become an artist during the Renaissance, oneusually came from the class of artisans and had to go

through an apprenticeship with an established artist and

then join a guild. This Renaissance career path was

closed to women making it extremely difficult for womento become artists in this era. However, a few women didsucceed. Elisabetta Sirena was a female Renaissance art-ist so accomplished that she was accused of signing her

fathers work. Judith Leyster was a 17th century artist whowas a member of the Painters Guild and had three male

apprentice artists working underneath her. For more

than two hundred years Leysters work was mistakenly

attributed to several different men in her life until her

signature was noticed on many paintings sold to majormuseums. One of Leysters works was said to be one of

the finest he ever painted, when it was mistaken for the

work of Frans Hals. After the piece was discovered to be

Leysters, the art critic James Laver said, Some womenartists tend to emulate Frans Hals, but the vigorous brushstrokes of the master were beyond their capability.

Feminist art created the notion that the messageof art is just as important as its medium. In 1964, YokoOno publicly performed Cut Piece in which she sat on

stage and asked the audience to cut off pieces of her

clothes. The piece showed misogynist tendencies fromsome male cutters and tenderness from others using only

a pair of scissors, a woman, and an audience. Kirsten Jus-

teen also depicted victimhood in her piece Sculpture II

created in 1968. The piece showed a woman in a card-board box and was meant to depict womens potential

that had not been realized. Georgia OKeefe, most

famous for her paintings of close ups of flowers, wasone of the female artists to achieve commercial suc-cess. OKeefes flower paintings were meant to be

erotic with her flowers painted to resemble vaginas.

For this, OKeefe was called a nymphomaniac by themedia; a term that would not have been used to de-

scribe her if she were a man. Judy Chicago is anotherfamous, yet controversial, feminist artist. She wasmade famous for her work The Dinner Party, a hom-

age to womens history using a large triangular table

with thirty-nine place settings. The work has beenhoused, since 2002, in the Brooklyn Museum of Art

and will probably not be exhibited for some time be-

cause of the accusations against Chicago for mistreat-ing her volunteers.

Feminist art is not meant to emulate the tradi-

tional male artist pushing his way to the top in order to

be the next big thing, it is about banding together asartists and individuals to tackle the larger issue of sex-

ism. In the 1960s, around the same time the feministart movement was picking up momentum, Wilhelmina

Cole-Holiday began collecting art created by women.For over twenty years, Wilhelmina and her husbanddevoted their time to collecting the work of women

artists. These art pieces would soon become the core

of the National Museum of Women in the Arts perma-

nent collection. In 1987, NMWA opened at a perma-

nent location with the exhibit American Women Art-

ists.Underrepresented and having to fight against

sexism, women artists have struggled for recognitionfor centuries. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, lessthan five percent of the artists in the modern art sec-

tion are women. Feminist art was created to fight

against this discrimination. With permanentwomencentric art museums, such as the National Mu-

seum of Women in the Arts, hopefully mainstream mu-seums will realize talented women artists do exist andfinally recognize feminist art.

Sources:Gopnik, Blake. "What is Feminist Art?." Washington Post

0 4 / 2 2 / 2 0 0 7 3 . 2 6 J a n 2 0 0 9 < h t t p : / /

w w w . w a s h i n g t o n p o s t . c o m / w p - d y n / c o n t e n t /article/2007/04/20/AR2007042000400.html>.

"History of NMWA." http://www.nmwa.org/about/history.asp. 2009. 26 Jan 2009 .

Nochlin, Linda. "Why Have There Been No Great Women

Artists?." feminist iz ing. 26 Jan 2009 .

"The Art History Archive-Feminist Art." Feminism and Femi-

nist Art. 26 Jan 2009 .

Feminism and the Artsby Samantha McLenithan

Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV,

Georgia OKeefe,

nga.gov


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Women Artists: Greatest Hitsby Melanie Mowinski

Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179, a woman of many

talents. She invented her own alphabet and guided her

fellow nuns to create brilliant miniature Illuminations.

Artemisia Gentileschi, 15931653, an Italian Ba-

roque painter influenced by Caravaggio. She was the

first female painter to become a member of the Acade-

mia di Arte del Disegno and explored historical and

religious themes in her paintings.

Mary Cassatt, 18441926, an American painter and

printmaker, who spent most of her adult life in France.

Her paintings often depict the intimate relationship be-

tween mothers and children.

Kthe Schmidt Kollwitz, 18671945, was a Germanpainter, printmaker, and sculptor who used drawing,

etching, lithography and woodcut to document the hu-

man struggle during the early part of the 20th century.

Georgia OKeeffe, 18871986, an American artist

who painted stylized flowers, rocks, bones, shells and

landscapes. Many of her paintings transform the sub-

ject matter into abstract compositions. As she grew

older, she worked primarily from Ghost Ranch, her

home in New Mexico.

Dorothea Lange, 18951965, an influential Americanphotographer best known for her Farm Security Ad-ministration photographs documenting the results of

the Great Depression.

Frida Kahlo, 19071954, was a Mexican painter, who

used painting to express pain from a tragic accident

and her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera, her

husband and well-known Mexican muralist.

Louise Bourgeois, 1911, an artist and sculptor. Her

most famous spider works, Maman, explore her rela-

tionship with her mother. Look for her eye sculptureson the lawn outside the Williams College Museum of

Art.

Cindy Sherman, 1954, is an American photogra-

pher best known for her Untitled Film Still series and

other conceptual portraits.

All images drawn by Melanie Mowinski.

LiberScivias,copyoftheformerRupertsbergCodex,c.

1180;StHildegard'sAbbey,

Eibingen

Self-portr

ait1630s,

RoyalCollection,

London

TheChildsBath,1893,RobertA.WallerFund,1910.2The

ArtInstituteofChicago


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SUSAN B. ANTHONY WOMENS CENTERSPECIAL ISSUE ON WOMEN AND WORK


7

UntitledFilmStill#14,1978CindyShermanMetroPic-

tureGallery&CindySherman

Maman,1999,TateModern

SelfPortraitwithThornNecklace,Hummingbirdand

Unibrow

,1940

MigrantMother,FarmSecurityAdministration,Officeof

WarInformation,OfficeofEmergencyManagement,Reset-

tlementAdministrationSource,LibraryofCongress

OrientalPoppies,1928,Univ

ersityArtMuseum,University

ofMinnesota

Self-Portr

ait,1923Woodcut,CollectionofTheBoston

PublicLibrary,PrintDepartment


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Also, the roles that are often given to actresses are

stereotypes and women have a much harder timefinding acting jobs after reaching middle age. The

majority of men do not have this problem. Careerssuch as directors, screen writers, animators and pro-ducers are just a few examples of creative careers that

are dominated by men.One reason for this may be that many more

critics focus on men artists than women. More re-

search and studies have been done concerning male

historical and present-day figures and artists than fe-male. Another reason may be that it is more accept-

able for girls to be highly creative in high school.

When women begin trying to balance family life and

personal careers/dreams, often times they can notfind an acceptable balance. Also, girls problems

may come when they try to reconcile the stereotypicalparadox of the nurturing, recessive, motherly female

with that of the unconventional artist (Piirto).

The intensity of purpose is still another reasonthat Piirto gives as to why there are so few prominent

women in the visual arts field. Piirto speaks of various

surveys conducted over the years which more or lesshave resulted in the same outcomes. More young men

are willing to live impoverished lives, declaring that

Women Artists: Renaissance to Modern Day, continued

their artwork was their life while the majority of

female respondents replied that their art was half

my life, the other half is my future family (Piirto).The role that societal constraints play in indi-

vidual lives from the Renaissance period to today

has not changed substantially. Women are still a

minute minority in most fields of visual arts. This canbe blamed on various reasons, but the conclusion of

most feminists and other academics is that in orderfor women to be considered on a par with male art-

ists, they must overcome many more obstacles.Some of these obstacles are caused by external so-cietal stereotypes while others are internal, passed

down from generations, far preceding the Renais-

sance.

Sources:Morris, Roderick Conway. Shattering a Renaissance glass

ceiling. International Herald Tribune. May, 2003.Piirto, J. Why are there so few? (Creative women: Visual

artists, mathematicians, scientists, musicians).

Davidson Institute for Talent Development. 2000.Zwanger, Meryl. Women and Art in the Renaissance.

Sister: Columbia Universitys Feminist Magazine.

1997.

male superheroes suffer (one may remember Gwen

Stacey, who was thrown off a bridge in front of her boy-friend, Spiderman), but female superheroes are often

victims of twisted violence and horrific death. The most

sickening thing about the trend is the sexualization ofthe violence, as if the reader must be forcibly re-

minded of the femininity and frailty of even the most

powerful female heroes. A particularly vivid exampleof this is the original Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. In The

Killing Joke, considered by many to be one of the mostinfluential comics ever, the Joker goes to her home,shoots her and kidnaps her. Barbara Gordon is para-

lyzed, ending her career as Batgirl. It is implied that

the Joker rapes her, as he then takes photographs ofher naked, bleeding and crying, which he forces her

father to view. When writer Alan Moore asked if it was

acceptable to end Batgirls run this way, he recalls edi-

tor Len Wein saying 'Yeah, okay, cripple the bitch.The most significant thing about this trend is

that male characters do not share it. While they do suf-fer horrifically and sometimes die, many times they

come back even stronger: Superman dies but returns,

Batman has his back broken but returns, etc. As a rule,this is not true of female superheroes. Once theyre

down, theyre usually out.

This should be an issue to comic writers, edi-tors, and fans as well as to feminists, because if you kill

Animation Without Representation?:

Women in the Comics Industries,

continued

The Joker undresses an injured Batgirl in The Killing Joke.

(continued on next page)


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off or marginalize the characters that female readers

can most relate to, they will stop reading comics.Girls already make up only 10% of readership, and

are very rare among the writers, artists, and inkers ofcomics. Why reduce those numbers even further?Why would girls want animation without representa-

tion, an art form in which they have no part? But howto get women involved in the industry in the firstplace?

An answer may lie across the Pacific. In Japan,

one finds a blossoming comics industry (calledmanga in Japanese) that dwarfs our own, perhaps

because it is so inclusive of women. Female manga-

ka (manga artists) have been a part of the scene since

the 1940s and 50s. One of these, Machiko Hasegawa,

is widely considered the grandmother of manga.

Sazae-san, her light-hearted weekly comic about the

life of a young family, ran for almost 30 years and in-spired an equally long-lived TV show. Hasegawas

influence can still be felt in manga today; somemanga-ka even choose names for their charactersbased on her work.

Today, many of the most successful manga-ka

are women, and this is reflected in the characters andstory lines they write. Takeuchi Naoko (creator ofSailor Moon), Takaya Natsuki (Fruits Basket), and

Yuki Kaori (Angel Sanctuary), are all professional art-ists who have created powerful and fascinating fe-

male characters.

Tsukino Usagi of Sailor Moon (Serena, if youwatched the TV series as a kid) goes against the Japa-

nese feminine ideal: she is loud, brash, does not hide

her emotions, and she is the leader of a team ofmagical girls who defend the earth from evil invad-

ers. Tohru Honda fits the Japanese ideal more closely.

She is sweet natured, wide-eyed, and helpful to eve-ryone she meets, yet she also wields a great deal of

power within her surrogate family, and is the only one

capable of resolving their deep-seated issues. Alexielof Angel Sanctuary is a powerful female angel wholeads an army against the corrupt regime in Heaven.

Her soul is later reincarnated into the body of the

teenage boy Setsuna Mudo, who must carry on herstruggle. In a very unique plot twist, he finds his own

mind/memories relocated into Alexiels very female

body.This sort of free play with gender is oftenfound in the work of manga-ka, male and female. In

the world of manga, we have male superheroes whomust transform into girls in order to activate their su-

perpowers, a tough boy who turns into a buxom girlwhenever hes splashed with water, as well as gay,

lesbian, and transgender folk of all stripes and spe-

cies (Im not kidding in manga, there are demons,angels, and other preternatural beings who love

members of their own sex).

I have covered the dominant industries ofthe two countries where comics are most preva-

lent and developed, but I have only scratchedthe surface of the comics world, especially in itsrelevance to women. It has become a vehicle for

women to tell their own stories: Marjane Satrapihas received international acclaim for her auto-biographicalPersepolis, in part a story of grow-

ing up female and secular during the Iranian

revolution. It has also become a way to poke funat patriarchal beliefs: feminist political cartoons

(satirizing conservative ideas on gender roles,

contraception, and gay rights) proliferate in pub-

lications like Ms. Magazine. Women writers/artists are flourishing in the fertile world of un-

derground comics in nations across the globe.

Comics are as much an art form as musicor painting, though they forsake the airy intellec-

tualism of other mediums in favor of great art andengaging stories. Comics have something to of-fer everyone, young or old, male or female.

Sources:

Special thanks to Alexander Munoz, Boston Living-

stone, and Meghan McGrath.

1) Robinson, Jessica. "Women in Comic Books." Vi-

ciousgrin. 2001. 26 Jan 2009 .2) Simone, Gail. "Women in Refrigerators." 2000. 26

Jan 2009 .

3) Aoki, Deb. "History of Manga: Comics in Prewar,World War II, and Post-World War Japan 1920-1949."

Abou t. com. 2009 . 26 Jan 2009 .

4) Thorn , Matt. "a History of Manga." 2007. 26 Jan 2009

< h t t p : / / w w w . m a t t - t h o r n . c o m / m a n g a g a k u /

history.html>.5) McDonald, Heidi. "Machiko Hasegawa: Grand-

mother of Manga." PW The Beat: The News Blog of

Comics Culture. 07/11/06. 26 Jan 2009 .6) Thompson, Anne. "DVD Watch: Whedon's Collector

Edition Serenity Due 8/21." EW.com. 8/01/2007. 4 Feb

2 0 0 9 < h t t p : / / w e b l o g s . v a r i e t y . c o m /t h o m p s o n o n h o l l y w o o d / 2 0 0 7 / 0 8 / d v d - w a t c h -

whedo.html>.

7) Felton, Cosmo. "No Place For a Girl: Batman Comics

of the 1980s." Lonely Gods: Social Minorities in Ameri-

can Superhero Comics. 2007. 9 Feb 2009 .


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International Womens Day is a holiday recog-

nized in both developed and developing countries

alike. Since its inception in 1911, it has reminded peo-ple around the world to make sure that womens equal-

ity is achieved and maintained for future generations.

Women began to draw public attention to theirprotests against inequality in 1908. Fifteen thousand

women stood up against inequalities that year when

they marched through New York City demanding betterwages, shorter hours, and voting rights. That same year,

the U.S. Socialist Party created a Womens National

Committee to campaign for suffrage. In 1909, the firstNational Womens Day was observed in the U.S. on Feb-

ruary 23rd due to the strides made by the U.S Socialist

Party.

In 1910, at the second International Conferenceof Working Women, the idea of an International

Womens Day was proposed. The conference, consist-

ing of one hundred different women from seventeendifferent countries, unanimously approved the idea.

In 1917, Russian women struck for bread and

peace over the death of two million Russian soldiers.

The women were on strike for four days until the Czar

abdicated his throne and the new Russian government

granted women the right to vote. The day the strikecommenced was Sunday the 23rd on the Russian calen-

dar which is the 8th of March elsewhere. To this day,

International Womens Day is celebrated on March 8th.International Womens Day played a role in the

creation of National Womens History Month. In 1978,

the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County

(California) Commission on the Status of Women cre-ated the Womens History Week celebration. The

celebration was met with a positive response and withina few years dozens of other schools had created their

own special programs for Womens History Week. Word of National Womens History Week began

to spread across the nation and in 1981 Senator Orrin

Hatch and Rep. Barbara Mikulsi co-sponsored the firstJoint Congressional Resolution. In 1987 the NationalWomens History Project petitioned Congress to ex-

pand the celebration to the entire month of March. TheNational Womens History Month Resolution has been

approved by both the House and Senate and has ex-panded interest in womens history across the nation.

In celebration of National Womens History

Month this March, the Susan B. Anthony Womens Cen-

ter will be staging a production entitled Bitches, Bim-

bos and Ballbreakers which addresses the issue of fe-

male stereotypes. A theatrical adaptation of the Guer-

rilla Girls book Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The

Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereo-types, the play will be performed on March 11th in

Venable Theater (at Massachusetts College of Liberal

Arts) at 7:30 pm and on March 12th at 7:30 pm at theMain Street Stage in North Adams. Tickets are $2; all

proceeds will benefit the local battered womens shel-

ter.

Sources:

"About International Women's Day." International Women'sDay 2009. 02042009. Aurora. 4 Feb 2009 .

The Story of National Womens History Month National

Womens His tory Project 01/31/2001. 2000.

The Herstory of Womens History by Samantha Mclenithan

8thAnnual International Womens Day Conference

Bard College at Simons Rock (Great Barrington, MA)

Saturday, March 7, 2009, 8:30 am4 pm

The Power of Women in the Arts

- Morning Keynote and Panel (9 amnoon):

Cultivating Womens Creative Expression:

Challenges and Triumphs

Dr. Susan Fisher Sterling, Director of the NationalMuseum of Women in the Arts

Karen Allen, actor and fiber artist

Veronica Chambers, journalist and authorDr.Carol Gilligan, psychologist and author- Lunch (noon1:30 pm) and International Arts &

Crafts Market

- Afternoon panel (1:30 pm3:30 pm)Womens Art: Why It Matters and What It Achieves In

The World

Dr. Marjorie Agosin, poet, human rights activist, and

professor

Amber Chand, social entrepreneurKristin Jones, visual artistMartha Richards, founder of the Fund for Women Artists- Closing Event (3:304 pm)

$10 student registration fee will be reimbursed by theMCLA Academic Dean and the Susan B. Anthony Womens

Center for the first 10 students to contact the Susan B. An-thony Womens Center at X5497 or Womens Center via

First Class.

For further information, contact the Susan B. Anthony

Womens Center.


11/12

11



Bitches,Bimbos and BallbreakersA Theatrical Adaptation of Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers:The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes

Pokingfunat

(and poking holes in)

hundreds

of

stereotyp

es

aboutwomen

March 11th, 7:30 pm

in the Venable Theater at MCLA

March 12th, 7:30 pm

in the Venable Theater at MCLA

$2 per person.

All proceeds will benefit the local battered womens shelter.Questions? Contact the Womens Center on FirstClass or at x5497.


12/12

Mailto:

SusanB.AnthonyWomensCenter

CampusCenterRoom#322

MCLA NorthAdams,MA01247

Phone:413-662-5497E-mail:[email protected]

ISSUE3FEBRUARY2009

Did y ou know? Our newsletter is now available online!

To help protect the environ-

ment, the Womens Center has

been producing fewer paper

copies of our quarterly news-

letter. You can access new

newsletters, and archives fromthe past few years, on our web-

site. Go to www.mcla.edu/Student_Life and click on

Womens Center. To the right,you can see where the link to

our newsletter is on the new

website. Enjoy!

Documents

Women and the Arts