Besides the past six weeks being a complete whirlwind, I took a lot away from this course. More than anything it’s challenged my perspectives about “art,” the constructions of women in art, and most importantly: Female artists. Many of the texts have made me aware of just how devalued women in the arts are and that for as far as we’ve come, we unfortunately have a long road ahead of us.

The way in which women in the arts have operationalized their thoughts and messages was very profound to me. They’ve found a way to “sneakily”  (for the less Radical artists) instill their messages into their works. As most modern fems are willing to “fight fire with fire,” many female artists have found a less controversial outlet and, in my opinion, still have done a damn good job of moving women artists forward as a group within themselves.

As I finish up Week 6 and my reading on Nochlin’s “Why are there no great women artists?” something she said really got me thinking. She made mention of feminist art as being much more than a category or “box” to put women artists into. To belittle the movement and to label and categorize it as another branch or period in Art would be a great disservice especially to the creation of something that is far from complete.

Ohlin also makes mention of how far we have come collectively but there is much, much more work to be done. I think this is something we can’t let ourselves become passive about or let slip into the back of our minds.

Two thoughts I’d like to leave with:

“The personal is political.” -Carol Hanisch

A favorite quote from Lady Gaga- ” We are not just art for Michelangelo to carve, he can’t re-write the agro of my furied heart.”

Peace, Love, & Feminism <3

Julia

Anzaldua’s La Mestiza and It’s Application to The House on Mango Street

By: Julia Usitalo

“Cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war. Like all people, we perceive the version of reality that our culture communicates. Like others having or living in more than one culture we get multiple, often opposing messages. The coming together of two self-consisten but habitually incompatible frames of reference causes un choque, a cultural collision” (Anzaldua, 387).

Following my reading of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the chapter that really stuck out as I considered the ideas laid out in the excerpts from Gloria Anzaldua was “Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps.” As I consider this idea of la mestiza, this mixing of race(s), and the women that identify with this ideology I can not imagine the immense amount of confusion and struggle to understand what actually makes up their self-identity. The question of “What are you?” or “Who are you?” seem such simple conjectures to those around us but to have to deal with multiple and opposing multi-cultural values and beliefs would leave anyone’s head spinning. There is a term in Psychology known as “cognitive dissonance.” This theory suggests that when a person is confronted with two opposing viewpoints discomfort and tension are the result. In many cases due to this confliction, many “freeze up.” They become almost immobilized with indecision and therefore can become very stuck.

This resonated throughout my reading of The House on Mango Street as I considered the life of the main character, a young girl named Esperanza who at the beginning of the novel seems to be not much older than 12 years of age. The cognitive dissonance she feels seems to extend itself throughout much of the book and her life as a young Chicana (Mexican-American) girl.

The House on Mango Streetis a perfect example of the intersectionality that is prominent in so many of our lives as women and especially for women other than the color “White.” The idea of one’s family, “home,” and culture weighed heavy on my mind as I read Esperanza’s story. In the chapter, “Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps,” Esperanza and Alicia talk about Esperanza “not having a house.”

 “No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived there. I don’t belong. I don’t ever want to come from here. You have a home, Alicia, and one day you’ll go there, to a town you remember, but me I never had a house, not even a photograph…only one I dream of.  No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you’ll come back too. Not me. Not until somebody makes it better. Who’s going to do it? The mayor? And the thought of the mayor coming to Mango Street makes me laugh out loud. Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor” (Cisneros, 131).  

Esperanza is la mestiza. She is a contradiction but a combination of so many things. Anzaldua speaks about white culture attacking Mexican culture and attacking indigenous culture and in this attackthe threatened self blocks with a “counterstance” (Anzaldua, 387). It is possible and highly probable that in engaging in ths counterstance one will become stuck much like Esperanza did in attempting to deny parts of who she is.

Anzaldua seems to have come to a healing point or middle groud laid out for la mestiza.  

“The new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She learns to juggle cultures. She has a plural personality, she operates in a pluralistic mode-nothing is thrust out, the good the bad the ugly, nothing rejected, nothing abandoned. Not noly does she sustain contradictions, she turns the ambivalence into something else” (Anzaldua, 388).

Intro Video! ( <- Click! )

Hi Rachel and Class,

My name is Julia. I’m currently a Senior here at BGSU. I’m hoping to graduate in May and then move on to my next big adventure!

In regards to what culture and art mean to me… culture is the system of values or traditions shared by many and art is the expression of the human creative.

I look forward to reading and watching everyone’s posts! That’s it for now.

Have a good rest of the day!

-Julia