art and gender

I don't believe that gender determines the type or style of art that someone makes. As both of the examples of judith beheading holofernes show, men and women are both capable of painting gruesome acts, and they are both also capable of painting flowers and other traditionally "feminine" objects. Both depictions are done skillfully, and I don't think there is any evidence that one gender is more artistically talented than the other. One interesting thing to note about them, though, is that in the one done by a male you can see the tortured look in his face and she appears emotionless.  In the one done by a female, you see the emotion in judith and less pain in holofernes.

I do, however, feel that it can be much harder for females to be successful in the art world as in any other industry because of the traditional male-dominated nature of it as well as women having to fight the traditional roles thrust upon them. The heidi chronicles shows how hard women had to work (and may still have to) to be accepted in art, and i think this is a reflection of the unwillingness of men in the art business to accept change. The odd thing is that there are many talented female artists in history (as shown in heidi's slide shows), yet the average person prbably can't think of one, though they can probably name a few males.

When i watched the wsu production of the heidi chronicles, i was struck by how emotional she was. When i read it myself, she seemed more collected and i didn't imagine her crying like in the production. Particularly in her speech at the alumni event, i saw her as sarcastic and a little frustrated with her life, and in the play she was upset and crying and out of control. It's interesting to see how such different interpretations can be drawn from the same story.

Erik