Entire womanhood versus individual woman in art representations

            


Individuality versus group!

Just as Pollock poses a question of what would be wrong with the photos of women, I also actually do. Pollock discloses a group of women who involved in art and media practice, art history and feminist criticism, were the Women’s Art History Collective was formed in order to attempt for some analysis of women ‘s position in, and in relation to the history of art representations. (Pollock 126) These women had sensed an unfamiliar representation of women in art, and by 1972 they tended to take an initiative to improve the situation. They were not the only; many have been standing up for women representation take a case of the ‘Guerrilla girls' Though many initiatives have been taken, the truth is that the state of women representation lies in this formula of ‘womanhood versus individual woman’ this implies that women turn themselves into objects of gaze. Take an example of Heleen van Royen, with all her exposure in the world as a prominent novel writer, she decided to swim in the opposite direction compared Women’s Art History Collective. She exposed her body for her own interests following the individualism principle.

In 2014, I don’t actually remember the month, as I was much obsessed with the program, De wereld draait door, of Matthijs Nieuwkerk, I was by then striving for better grades in the Dutch language. Also, the fact is that this program consists of many intellectual parts, and a lot of music which makes it a favourite evening program. But while sitting on my sofa watching, Heleen van Royen was suddenly introduced. She was speaking confidently about her ‘vaginaselfies’, and then a moment came for Matthijs to order for a display of some selfies on the screen. I was surprised to see, the once confident woman, asking for a moment for her children to be displaced from the screen to prevent them from watching their mothers’ vaginaselfies. Heleen was not alone; see had come with an escort in the studio, who was a man, and an art expert. This art expert praised Heleen for her confidence, and he was fully convinced that her selfies were fully a piece of art that would sell in different museums. No woman came up to comment on this man’s comment. It seemed that the act of van Royen was not empowering womanhood as a totality. Why would they not praise her act?

Again, in an interview with the show of Humberto Tan, the son of Heleen who had escorted his mother was confronted with a question of what he thought when he had heard that his mother was going to do that what she did. The answer was that; he also found it frightening, but he could swallow it because it was bringing in a lot of money (Late night show September 2016) Heleen also, kept on emphasizing the amount of money she was earning and was going to earn from the selfies.

I know, I might not be the first to write about Heleen on this blog, but there are many women out there making naked photo’s in the name of art and money. I would call this an individual choice that bothers all women. This would have to change, but how?  Pollock thought of challenge and replacement of these images in a notion of a woman as a signifier, an ideological discourse in which one can identify the meanings that are attached to woman in different kinds of images, and how meanings are constructed to other signifier in that discourse. (226) In this way, Pollock was amending a system through which those images depicting a woman’s weakness would be limited. A measure to be taken was making of parallels of images of men in a similar position as that of a woman (127). So, if we consider the photos of Van Royen, we would also have a man making ‘penisselfies’ to realise that balance. But I am afraid there might be few men ready to make penisselfies.

While measures were being taken to ensure that the image of a woman is improved in visual media in 1972. In the 21century it seems that women have emerged from a collective picture of womanhood to an individualistic state. Another example is that of Sheeba Karungi a Ugandan female singer who doesn’t  draw parallels of womanhood to herself. She is of the view that her body was given to her to be used for a survival and even her mother supports her. “There are many people out there who would love to have a gaze at nice woman body. Why not using it”? So, if all is right, one might choose an individualistic side of womanhood, and also thus draw conclusions that it seems that women’s representation in art is at a larger extent an individual choice. And that though individual choice unfortunately affects the entire womanhood.

References

Pollock, Griselda, "What's Wrong with Images of Women", Screen Education, 1977, no. 24, pp. 126-128

 Hombert, The late night show, RTV, (2016, September)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1CBI__iSk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrZRGks7VL8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4xzkQL0ZiU

https://www.ze.nl/artikel/210533-holy-moly-heleen-van-royen-maakt-vaginaselfie