Reading response

05 June Reading response: It is a reality that despite massive feminist activism and liberation movements, the idea of male dominance is largely intact. This leads us to wonder where the feminist politics is actually heading and what have women really achieved from this as yet. There is a great misunderstanding in society that feminism is an anti-male philosophy. According to Hooks (40), this misunderstanding stems from patriarchal societal makeup. It is the patriarchal doctrine which forms the bedrock of mass media due to which misguided information is promoted about feminist politics. This leads us to two critically important questions. Is the modern liberation movement heading in the right direction or too much assertion is used to bring a change? Also, how long will it take to eradicate gender stereotypes from society?
Feminist artists have contributed a lot to revolutionize the image of women. They have asserted through their works that a woman’s personality cannot be defined by men, rather she is herself the maker of meaning. This means that the status of women in society cannot be labelled submissive. It is important for a woman’s body to be seen through a woman’s eyes because this effectively disrupts the centuries old concepts held and promoted by men. Conventional femininity reinforces this male idea that women are delicate and docile (Frueh 194). So, modern feminist art has definitely focused on female body a lot in myriad different ways. This leads us to important questions. Does concentrating focus on female nudity in art contribute much to changing patriarchal views? Does feminist art play a significant role in emancipating women?