This term I’m teaching courses in political science, anthropology, and history. I wear many hats at my university. This is the joy of being an interdisciplinary scholar. In many cases, it makes me less employable for a full-time position because most departments want someone who did their PhD exclusively in that field. While my master’s and bachelor’s were in history, my PhD included history, political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and gender studies. So, when I teach disparate courses, I play a game—I look for crossover between my courses… and my art.
Here is a painting I did while teaching about Marxism in my world history class and also commodity fetishism (a Marxist concept) in my sociology of popular culture class. This painting is titled ‘The History of an Idea,’ which reflects how ideas (such as “communism”) get adapted and changed over time and across contexts.
While preparing for my history class this week, I came across a quote by feminist philosopher/writer Mary Wollstonecraft that made me go hmmm. In her treatise ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792) she writes:
“[Men’s] physical superiority cannot be denied – and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with this natural preeminence, men endeavour to sink us (women) still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment.”
Classic sexual objectification, which is something I teach in my current anthropology course and my sociology of popular culture course (not this term). Obviously, we are still contending with such objectification in advertising, film, etc. Just this week in the US Congress, Facebook representatives testified about its role in perpetuating the harmful objectification of female bodies on its platforms (namely Instagram), and the negative impact of such images on children, especially girls.
I start work on a large commission soon whose theme will be feminism and women’s empowerment, as requested by the collector. The collector herself is the manifestation of an empowered, successful woman, so it’s kind of a perfect partnership. If you look closely at my paintings (see below), you can see how I incorporate text. I now plan to include some of Wollstonecraft’s treatise in that commission.
Cheers!
Beth
