Fig 3. Girl in chain by Ellen von Unwerth "Ellen von Unwerth" Artsy, 2018, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/ellen-von-unwerth-girl-in-chain. April 9, 2019.
Artists subvert the objectification of women through challenging the audience to become aware of the their own inherent desire to objectify the female body. What exactly is objectification theory? As Szymanski states, “Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) postulates that many women are sexually objectified and treated as an object to be valued for its use by others. SO occurs when a woman’s body or body parts are singled out and separated from her as a person and she is viewed primarily as a physical object of male sexual desire.” (Szymanski, 7-8). Marina Abramovic is an example of an artist that worked to expose this objectification theory through challenging the audience to recognize their own internalized desire to objectify. She opened an exhibit in 1974 called Rhythm 0, in which she placed 72 objects on a table, and stood in the middle of the room, with the instructions, “I am an object. You can do whatever you want to do with me”. Through allowing the pub...
Feminist artists subvert the sexualization and objectification of the women through distorting the female body and representing it in a nonconventional way. “The thin body ideal refers to the European concept of a slender female with a small physique and little body fat. ‘Thin-body ideal occurs as a result of social pressure to attain a lean gure, placed on individuals by the media, family, peers, and interpersonal encounters’ (Stice & Shaw, 1994, p. 289). The media displays this through messages in popular magazines, lms, and television. For example, ‘in magazines, weight loss messages are often placed next to messages about one’s sex life, implying that weight loss will lead to a better sex life,’ while “‘on television shows, women are judged as romantic or sexual partners based on their appearance’” (McKay, 2). Ana Mendieta’s Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints) works to subvert beauty standards for the female body through distorting it and representing it in a way that is purpos...
Fig 2. Bird Transformation by Ana Mendieta. "Ana Mendieta." Artsy, 2018, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/ana-mendieta-bird-transformation. April 9, 2019.
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