Artistic Behavior in the Human Female Essay

The passage above comes from the article, Artistic Behavior in the Human Female, by Jean Robertson (2003, p. 24). Robertson (2003) argued that female person artists define and interpret female sexuality in various and conflicting ways, and by using diametric artistic strategies. Robertson makes assumptions much or less the womans body as a contested terrain, wherein be a woman continues to be a publication of heated debate. For him, how female artists view themselves as women, and as artists, shape their characterisation of femininity and female sexuality in their artworks.One of the quotes that Robertson menti peerlessd in his textbook comes from Simon de Beauvoir. In her seminal book, The Second Sex, she stressed that One is not natural a woman, lone(prenominal), rather, becomes one. I want to reflect on de Beauvoirs recital and Robertsons belief approximately the womans body. I turn back with de Beauvoir that social experiences and semipolitical conditions impact t he construction of being a woman. decree shapes how women and men jut out femininity and sexual practice roles through establishing gender roles and expectations.An lesson is when a girl is conditioned by her m opposite to be a woman, by telling her how she should act as a woman. This includes educating her virtually the toys she mass and cannot use, and the games she can and cannot play. The girl learns that she should act and see a certain way, in order to be fair(prenominal). She learns that she cannot be boisterous or get composite in sports, because that would be too manly for her. This girl is the perfect physical exercise of becoming a woman. On the other hand, I excessively outfit that being a woman is a biological and separate construct.A woman is a product of her biology, whether she likes it or not. This is why women be too defined by their sexual organs. Their biology in like manner determines their sex, as comfortably as their gender. Furthermore, bei ng a woman is a product of somebody desires and needs. Any woman can define her muliebrity the way she withal wants it to. Robertson indicated the existence of the pluralities of femininity. It is true that a womans body is a contested terrain, and for me, what is wrong with that? Is it not also possible to have ninefold femininities, instead of having only one approach to define and to interpret what it direction to be a woman?There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, of having distinguishable ways of being a woman, because to deny one approach to womanhood undermines the very essence of being a free woman. Journal approach 2 In A conversation about race and class, Childers and maulers (1990) argued that gender should be spread outed to include issues of race and class. They said that we should unhorse by talking about how we experienced the struggle to challenge and expand the category of gender (pp. 61-62). For them, people cannot understand gender in its totally sense, if r acial and class issues are overlooked in gender analysis.This course session challenged my view of gender, by asking me to see gender through a much broader lens. I have not considered that gender issues also interbreed racial and class issues. On the other hand, Childers and Hooks (1990) compelled me to think about the politics of gender. This is related to our discussions about gender as a political object. The politics of gender demonstrate that there are hierarchies to the feminine gender that are experienced by many women. Power is also alter by ones class and race.If white female women sapidity that there is a glass ceiling at the workplace, lower-class contraband and Hispanic women face a greater and heavier glass ceiling in society. Because of their class and race, they feel and experience multiple glass ceilings- the ceiling of racial discrimination, the ceiling of class discrimination, and the ceiling of gender discrimination. These ceilings, on top of one another, re present something more than just a hindrance to economic development, and resemble ceilings that are directly pressed on these womens bodies.They could only breathe, because there are just too many ceilings that make it onerous for them to even survive. Now, I look gender as an amalgam of issues that women summate to gender discourse. As a result, race and issue not only expand gender discourse, but considering them has also broadened my understanding of gender and its diverse conflicts. Journal immersion 3 When libbers speak about feminist movement, they mostly see the opposition between the feminine and the masculine- the yin and the yang.We also discussed the binary opposition in class, which heightened my knowledge of how women are reduced to the lower spectrum of the opposition. The binary opposition also exists in differentiating mothers from fathers. Mothers are put in pedestals, while fathers are disregarded and scorned. Laqueur (1990) complained about this binary op position in The Facts of Fatherhood. This is an interesting article that argued about the repression of the history of fatherhood. Laqueur (1990) posited that while women enjoyed being the natural parent, fathers were regarded as mere providers, or even as a backdrop to the family.He stressed that it is succession for fathers to reclaim their right to be part of the parenting history, wherein their contributions to the formation of society are recognized and respected. This polemical article amuses and interests me significantly. It amuses me because at the back of my mind, I snarl gender discrimination in reverse. I believe that mothers have especial(a)s bonds with their children, but this belief, however, is marked by sexism. Do not fathers also share special bonds with their children? Laqueur (1990) challenged the notion of motherhood, because it undermined the importance of fatherhood.In my mind, it is better to not differentiate mothers from fathers, which is the homogeneou s as stopping ourselves from differentiating women and men. Women and men have their own strengths and weaknesses and none is more superior. In the same line of thought, mothers and fathers are also equal. Let us just call motherhood and fatherhood as parenthood and crumble fathers their rightful place in the history and the practice of nurturing human society. Furthermore, this is also an interesting article, because it challenged me to talk about being a woman in relation to being a man. macrocosm a woman has its multiplicities, and now, being a man has its pluralism too. For me, these multiplicities, acknowledged as part of gender analysis, usher two steps forward for true gender equality. Journal entry 4 In Criticizing Feminist Criticism, Gallop, Hirsch, and Miller (1990) debated on the purposes and development of feminine critique. Their main point is that feminist criticism writers have gone to the extreme, by pulverizing each others feminist views. They believe that this p rocess is egotistical in understanding and improving the development of gender discourse and feminism.They insist that feminism can be criticized in a more worldwide manner, wherein there is no right or wrong feminism. I chose this article because it threads on sensitive issues, wherein the personal versus the collective idea of feminism clashes. Feminists have different worldviews about gender roles, sexuality, and femininity, and they criticize each other in different ways. I have never thought that feminist criticism has become too unconstructive. This is not my idea of criticism at all.I think about my own criticism of feminist criticism and I cannot help but agree that criticism is not about thrashing feminist theories (p. 350). Criticism is also about adding something to existing theories, in ways that can benefit the understanding of what it means to be a woman and how different understandings contribute to a wide range of feminism discourse. I earnestly believe also that feminists cannot define feminism in one way or several ways alone. Feminism should be viewed as a huge mess of ideas and values, different and special to women and groups, who involvement for and because of different issues.Yes, it is a mess alright, because being a woman is a dynamic process that is also a part of being an individual and being a member of ones race, class, and so on. Being a woman cannot ever be a tidy place, wherein women think the same and act the same. I would rather have it as a mess- wherein women are free to think and re-think feminism, in relation to their personal experiences and values.ReferencesChilders, M. & Hooks, B. (1990). A conversation about race and class. In M. Hirsch & E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 60-81). bare-assed York, NY Routledge. Gallop, J. , Hirsch, M. , & Miller, N. K. (1990). Criticizing feminist criticism. In M. Hirsch & E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 349-369). New York, NY Routledge. Laqueur, T. W. (1990). The facts of fatherhood. In M. Hirsch & E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 205-221). New York, NY Routledge. Robertson, J. (2003). Artistic behavior in the human female. In B. Stirratt & C. Johnson (Eds. ), Feminine persuasion art and essays on sexuality (pp. 23-38). Bloomington, IN atomic number 49 University Press.