Guerilla Girls - Creative Complaining

Who are they? 

According to their website, they are "feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman." And, "We're a bunch of anonymous females who take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms and appear in public wearing gorilla masks." Why? "We wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than our personalities."

And I was lucky enough to see their informative and very entertaining presentation at CofC this semester. 

Their goal: 

To "expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture." And, "use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny."

And how do they do that? 

"With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. We reveal the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, the and the downright unfair." 

Check out some examples below of how they use art to accuse art: 

 

And people have noticed: 

"Our work has been passed around the world by our tireless supporters. In the last few years, we’ve appeared at over 90 universities and museums, as well as in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Bitch, and Artforum; on NPR, the BBC and CBC; and in many art and feminist texts."

But they do way more than posters: 

"We are authors of stickers, billboards, many, many posters and other projects... We’re part of Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign in the UK; we're brainstorming with Greenpeace. In the last few years, we've unveiled anti-film industry billboards in Hollywood just in time for the Oscars, and created large scale projects for the Venice Biennale, Istanbul and Mexico City. We dissed the Museum of Modern Art at its own Feminist Futures Symposium, examined the museums of Washington DC in a full page in the Washington Post, and exhibited large-scale posters and banners in Athens, Bilbao, Montreal, Rotterdam, Sarajevo and Shanghai.

In addition, they have published several funny and interesting books: 

Confessions of The Guerrilla Girls

 

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art

 

 

  

Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes

 

 

The Guerrilla Girls' Art Museum Activity Book

 

 

And their plans for the future? 

"More creative complaining! More facts, humor and fake fur! More appearances, actions and artworks. We could be anyone; we are everywhere." 

 If you want to know more, here is a snippet from their F.A.Q. page:

How did your group get started? Why do you call yourselves Guerrillas? Why girls? Why the gorilla masks? Why the pseudonyms?

That is ancient history....you can read all about it in our interview.

 Or, just check out their whole website :) 

Mona Lisa Smile and Advertisements

This past weekend, I saw Mona Lisa Smile which was a wonderful movie about a Feminist art history professor at Wellesley in 1953-54. She deals with the school’s and her student’s traditional, conservative views on women, marriage, birth control, affairs, etc. The movie was great and I highly recommend it.

One scene in particular was my favorite: pay close attention from 4:10 to 9:30. As a Communication – Media Studies major, I have an interest in advertising. In the movie, the art history professor, Katherine Watson (played by Julia Roberts) addresses advertisements as art. A student objects and she ignores, stating that years from now, people will see those ads representing the “portrait” of women in that day. At the end of the movie, during the list of credits and cast, a slection of 1950s media and advertisements gives a good idea as to what that portrait of an ideal woman was; pay close attention from 2:10 to 4:50

So here we are today, over a half century later, and what do we see. Looking back in those ads of the smiling housewife – how far have we really advanced? Women are still seen in the home, cleaning/cooking, in need of beauty tools (girdles, makeup, hair products, etc.) and sexualized.

How many times do we see this with men? Fathers taking care of their children? Men making the meal for dinner? Dad’s doing the laundry? Guys in need of nail polish, makeup, etc.? Men sexualized? Sure that may be happening a bit more today but still, it is hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of ads portraying women that way in the majority of today’s media.

Here is a then and now comparison of some ads from the 50s and today:

In the home:

Cleaning/Cooking:

Beauty:

Sexualized:

How far have we really progressed in the last fifty years? In another half-century, will we have progressed any more? What will they say of us, our portrait of the ideal woman in advertisements?