Feminist Philosophy

 

       One step that can be taken to challenge gender equality in the art world is to have more female artists featured in museums. For example, many museums offer special exhibitions regularly. For the entire month of march, when women’s day occurs, museums can offer special exhibitions only including women artists. It shows appreciation for women’s rights as well as their artistic talents. An additional step would be to educate students about women artists in schools. Everyone knows about Van Gough, Picasso, and Andy Warhol, just to name a few, because the teaching of these artists is included in the curriculum of schools, even as early as elementary school. Children’s brains are like sponges that absorb information, and the earlier they can be taught about women in the art world, the better. In March, art students from elementary school through high school can learn about various women artists to acknowledge women's contributions to the arts. Although, it is important to incorporate more female artists into the curriculum throughout the year.

    Performance Acts and Gender Constitution, written by Judith Bulter explains a multitude of ideas from feminist theory. Bulter explains The Phenomenology of Perception which states, “the body is "an historical idea" rather than "a natural species."2 Significantly, it is this claim that Simone de Beauvoir cites in The Second Sex when she sets the stage for her claim that "woman," and by extension, any gender, is an historical situation rather than a natural fact” (pg. 520, 1989). Gender is an idea made up by humans to categorize each other. Animals simply exist; they do not have gender norms which they live by in accordance with what gender they were born as. Butler states “the body is a set of possibilities signifies (a) that its appearance in the world, for perception, is not predetermined by some manner of interior essence, and (b) that its concrete expression in the world must be understood as the taking up and rendering specific of a set of historical possibilities” (pg. 521, 1989).  I enjoy this theory because it allows for further thinking about gender norms and how they are very constricting. The theory examines the historical perspective in which women have been perceived as inferior to men, despite nature not portraying any inherent superiority of men over women. Women and Men are both human in nature and gender does not need to divide humanity.

Butler, J. (1988). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 519-531.