Reclaiming our Bodies: This is What a Real Body Looks Like.

The History of Art is obsessed with women's bodies, just look at Courbet's 1866 Origin of the World which is just a painting of a massive vagina. Or just look at ALL the reclining nudes from art history, such as one of the most famous, Titian 1538 Venus of Urbino.

Told you, massive vagina.

Me if I didn't have a job

There is a lot of history about women's bodies in art history but for many MANY years women were just to look at as a pretty object. Of course I am brushing over many different areas but let's move forward. Women in the second wave feminist movement used their bodies to get the activism about feminism out there. I want to keep a lot of these different feminist artist for different blogs. With using Wolf's books as inspiration, why do women hate themselves? Why do we all think we are fat? and why does my nose look big?

There are many different artist who use their bodies in many different way. If it's taking the piss out of the fashion industry, showing day to day life or showing the world there is no boundaries to gender. These artist are just a few that I would be honoured to curate a show around.

Nancy Upton

Have any of you guys ever seen an American Apparel advert, they are very disturbing and I really don't know if they are selling clothes or documenting women imprisonment in sex trafficking.

Yes this is a real as campaign!

Yep, this is real and apparently acceptable.

So American Apparel because they LOVE women did a competition for a “plus size” (you know normal looking women)  to win a campaign!

One artist called Nancy Upton decided to take part in this competition. Nancy decided to do some sexy shots whilst eating chicken wings, bathing in baths of ranch dressing, and smothering herself in pie, (my sort of friday night). This might sound like a bit of silly fun, but she is making a satirical point about the horrendous treatment women get in the fashion industry. Upton said on Dazed online,

“I don't believe that beauty should be qualified as because of someone's size or in spite of someone's size.”

Love these photos

The best thing about this work is she won!! The competition was an online vote and people loved her, why wouldn't they she is gorgeous and funny. American Apparel did not see the funny side of this and wouldn't recognize her victory. Seem like they can show women with barely no clothes on and who are underaged but a “fat lass” with a sense of humor is not acceptable.

Elinor Carucci

Elinor Carucci is an Israeli American photographer whose work is completely different to Upton’s but their work is simpler in the portray of the body. Carucci work focuses on intimate and private moments in her life. She does not glamorise her documentation and shows the world what women go through but what we don't talk about. There is a big secret out there what people don't like to talk about………….

WOMEN HAVE PERIODS!!!!

I know you are disgusted at this point, female or male who wouldn't be disturbed by the most natural thing in this world which makes life possible.    

This picture of menstrual blood will freak a lot of people out, that's why it will be great in a gallery. Jokes aside, why are people scared of period blood, it's from our bodies, it's the most natural thing ever and with some exceptions all women go through it.

The horror!! Mine comes out blue.

Carucci also has photos of her plucking hair from places you thought hair didn't grow. I love this woman's work because it's just a frank depiction of what women go through on a day to day basis and shows people it's completely natural and you don't have to be scared of your body.

We have all done it right??...no just me.....

Heather Cassils

The next artist is a little different to any artist I have looked at, trans artists isn't anything I have looked at before and believe me I will be researching more because there is some amazing work out there. I literally googled trans artist and the body and after a little search I found Heather Cassils who I was blown away with at the power of the work. Cassils is an artist who uses the physical body as sculptural mass with which to rupture social forms. This artist was born a women but the artist does not like to identity as male or female she stated in The Guardian,

“I resist the idea that you have to live as a man or as a women” Cassils explains, “ I didn't know any queer people until my 20s, let alone have any language for a trans identity.”

If I was curating a show I would love to use the artist Cuts: A Traditional Sculpture which is a large body of work with several components. One of the components is a series of photos of the reinterpretation of Eleanor Antin's 1972 Carving: A Traditional sculpture in which Antin crash dieted for 45 days and documented her body daily with photographs from four vantage points.Unlike Antins depiction of how women are treated about their weight and even if you skinny or fat you are a disgrace. Cassilis performance involves a transformation of traditionally masculine figure of building muscle. This series really plays with gender and how men, women and trans are seen and the stereotypes are involved in everyone.

My new fav artist

If I could ever do an exhibition about women and the interpretation of the body I would love to use these artist and more. Also have the audience involved on what parts of the body they love and try to make it a positive experience that women are beautiful. Does not matter what size you are, what your hair looks like, what colour your skin is. I am terribly insecure, I got bullied a bit in school about my hair (I looked like an extra in the hair bear bunch,) had terrible skin and was a complete weirdo! Now I feel so much better and realise my nose is where it's meant to be, I have teeth and my eyebrows catch my sweat so I am good to go. But a lot of women do not accept this and torture themselves cause they don't look like a size 0 model who have the most perfect hair and skin. Not knowing that these models don't even look like this, this is what I want to do in the art world. Show amazing artist who are showing women and the rest that we are pretty fucking sweet the way we are.

Peace and Toast

MAW

This is the Beginning

Happy New Year to all!!! This is just a short introduction to my new blog.

I know no one reads my blog but when the new race of people come and look into our blog culture even they will know that I have been a lazy bitch. For the last two month I haven't been in the best mind. I just finished my masters and thinking I am the smartest bitch going, I realized I am the most stupid person I know, who can't manage her life and the last part of the year has been a complete blur. I am not kidding I can't remember anything until I said have a good new year to a customer and realized, fuck where have I been!!! I have had these blogs waiting to go since November but my stress, laziness, work, laziness, IBS and more laziness has got in my way.

With my crazy laziness this is what my bed has looked like, (Tracey Emin, Bed 1998)

So with my new pumped up resolution vibes I am ready to get these blogs out there and January is the perfect way to start talking positively about, The Body.

So through December they tell you, it's fine eat, drink be merry but in January

DON'T EAT!!

YOU'RE TOO FAT!!

EXERCISE MORE!!

This needs to stop all year round and women need to be educated about these beauty myths, this is what I want to do with art. With my next few blogs I want to do a series of blogs about the female body. I have a pile of books I am slowly (very slowly) getting through and I am starting with my feminist writings. The Beauty Myth and Fat is a Feminist Issue.  

I am half way through The Beauty Myth, (written by Naomi Wolf) and it's scary how much it is still relevant. Wolf argues that women are oppressed by the pressure to fit into a myth or false ideal of beauty. With the impact of the second wave feminism and how many changes happened in the 1960s and 70s to women's right,  The Beauty Myth explores themes of yes we won new rights but we are still held back by an obsession with physical appearance and a very narrow definition of beauty. If you are fat, not white, old, too skinny, have stretch marks, curly hair, straight hair, bad skin, back fat etc etc...

YOU ARE ALL FUCKED.

Even though Fat is a Feminist Issues is more about the body they both go hand in hand with why do most women feel so shitty about their appearances. The Beauty Myth came out in 1991, I was two years old so The Very Hungry Caterpillar was more up my street. I am now 27 and have been interested in feminist theory and issues for the past few years. Whilst reading this book I thought a lot of the issues would be dated, unfortunately many of these issues are still the same old story.   

So with this inspiration from these books (by the end of the series I will have read fat is a feminist issue) I want to look at different artists who use their body and have themes of body identity in their work and how our society deals with anyone who doesn't look like a supermodel and breaking the perception of what a body looks like.

The next entry, which will be out in the next few days will be called, Reclaiming our Bodies: This is What a Real Body Looks Like. I will be looking at three different artist who use their body to show the public what different interpretations of beauty is out there.