Post 2 HW Quotes-Beshoy

Women, Art, and Society

Quote 1: 

"Benedictine Rule- shaped the community life of both men and women with two contradictory attitudes defining gender in religious life. While on the one hand, women were suspect as sexual threats to male chastity, on the other, spiritual commonality rather than gender differentiation was the ideal of the Benedictine Rule and hence of monasticism".

What I understood from it is that women were seen as a danger to men's purity, but the Benedictine rule says that men and women spiritually equal and are united. Its a contradiction, how are women seen as dangerous yet the rule that's preached is that they are equal.

Quote 2:

"Within the convent women had access to learning even though they were prohibited from teaching by St. Paul’s caution that “a woman must be a learner, listening quietly and with due submission. I do not permit a woman to be a teacher, nor must a woman domineer over a man; she should be quiet"

Shows that even when convents provided educational chances for women, there were still strict limits on what they could do and or say in comparison to men based on religious teachings at the time.

Guerrilla Girls

Quote 1: 

"As hard as it is to find art by women from ancient times, its even harder to find art historians who appreciate the women artists. When they do give a woman praise, they speak of her as if she were an aberration of her sec because of her talent". (page 8)

What I got from the quote is that its rare to find ancient works of art created by women, but it is even less common for art historians to actually value these female artists. When they do, they tend to view their skill as an exception, implying its surprising for a woman to be that skilled.

Quote 2:

"Notice how skillfully the needlewomen rendered the actions of war and the interactions of kings and generals (eft. One scholarly book on the tapestry goes on and on about its historical and formal sources, but completely ignores the women who executed it. Instead, the author assumes the tapestry to be the design of a single male genius who hired it out to insignificant sewers". (page 11)

It's annoying to see how often women's contributions are overlooked, despite the fact that they perform the majority of the work. The idea that the tapestry's female creators are expressed as "insignificant sewers" while an alleged male "genius" is highlighted demonstrates how common gender biass are in art history. Although these women were obviously skilled and talented in capturing detailed scenes, their contribution is downplayed, which is typical of the historical undervalued of women's labor.