Gender Roles, Subject, and Power by Ashley Vasquez

During the middle ages, women were expected to have the role of a housewife. However, many medieval women were able to become "writers, artists, merchants, and nuns, and ran the kingdom when their husbands were away at war" as mentioned in The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (Guerrilla Girls, 1998, p. 19). During this time, women artists either worked at businesses owned by men or were nuns. Since women only had roles as mothers and housewives, this influenced women to join a convent. By joining a convent, many women were freed from becoming wives and mothers. In these convents, women were able to learn and do thing such as embroidery. While they were able to participate, they were still not equal with the men. They were never allowed any form of power, such as preaching or becoming priests (Chadwick, 2012, p. 13-14).

Portia Wounding Her Thigh, 1664

During the middle ages, the easiest way to get out of the normal female role was by becoming a nun. However, as years pass, one can see that there are others ways to escape the typical life destined for women. During the Renaissance, it was easier for women to be work as artists if they were born into a family that supported them and had their own shop. If they were born into artistic families, they were able to benefit and have support. The achievements of women artists such as Elisabetta Sirani and Posperza de Rossi were "cited as evidence of what a woman could do, but male writers [...] asserted that famous women were miraculously endowed with the qualities that enable them to succeed and thus could not serve as models for ordinary women" (p. 87). This demonstrates how men viewed talented women as these rare creatures. They did not believe that every woman is capable of greatness. Women always had to prove themselves. In Elisabetta Sirani's painting, Portia Wounding Her Thigh, Portia is showing that she is strong and courageous by showing how she is going to stab herself. Portia is demonstrating how doing this can make her acceptable to men. It seems as if she is trying to be recognized as a strong woman rather than someone who is strong like a man.

Sussana and the Elders, 1610

Over the years, women have this constant battle of being viewed as objects. Artemesia Gentileschi was a young woman who worked in her father's studio. One of her famous pieces of work is Sussana and the Elders, where she demonstrates the aspect of sexual violence against women. In this painting, she shows the way the girl is sitting, which is with her legs closed, showing that she is being protective of her body because she knows the men's intentions are to harm her. Also, the man in red is looking out to the audience, making one believe that he is looking at the spectator, who he knows will not say anything. This does to show the deeper meaning which is that other men abuse women and that they will stay shut to protect men if they see them performing the same type of abuse that they probably committed or tried to commit. This goes to show how women are objectified. This shows the fear that women must have had when being looked as objects by men.

Horse Fair, 1855

In the 19th century, the artwork of Rosa Bonheur is introduced. Rosa Bonheur was a woman that was lucky to be born into a supportive family. She used that support to create work that represented women and the injustice towards them. In addition, she broke norms for women, such as wearing male-like clothes and also having a female life-long partner, Nathalie Micas. Her work focused on animals. During the time of her work, there was a focus on animal rights and abuse, as well as women rights. The helplessness of animals was similar to the helplessness of women during that time. In Rosa Bonheur's oil painting, Horse Fair, the horses are the main focus of the painting. They are these magnificent and beautiful creatures. In Anna Sewell's novel, Black Beauty, she described the relationship between a horse and a woman. This novel talks about cruelty against the horse. The horse in this novel is the one who does the work until they are burned out. Just like a woman, she is the one that does all of the work in the household. Also, the horse is this beautiful creature that is the property of a man. Likewise, a wife can be seen as someone beautiful who is the property of her husband.

Going back to the middle ages and identifying the roles that women had, it is upsetting to see that although the roles have changed over time, they still exist. In today's society, there is still a mindset that women are the ones who have to be the housewives and the nurturers in the household. One of the biggest issues today is that women are not seen as equal in the workplace. Could the idea that women are supposed to be housewives be an influence on this issue? Women have accomplished so much throughout the years, but they will never receive all of the acknowledgment that they deserve.



Works Cited:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.

The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.