Laurel Lampela

707 Words2 Pages

In her article, “Daring to Be Different: A Look at Three Lesbian Artists,” Laurel Lampela invites the readers to focus on three female historical artists named, Rosa Bonheur, Romaine Brooks, and Hannah Gluckstein, who had the courage to spend their life and have the appearance as lesbians. As mentioned by Laurel, these female artists challenged and disobeyed the traditional attire for women by dressing in ties, shirts, and pants instead of skirts or dresses, which were the general clothing for women in the 19th century (Lampela 2). The key question that the author is addressing are the lesbian artists’ significant contributions on the history and education of art. The most important information in this article is Bonheur, Brooks, and Gluck’s confidence in going against the law where women wears masculine attire. During the 19th century, Laurel Lampela discusses that a woman could not wear pants or cross-dress …show more content…

By this concept, the author Lampela means that it is important for the readers to acknowledge that these three lesbian artists are dressing in male attire to gain their identity as lesbians and to display their power, since women in dresses were viewed with less ability to do something (Lampela 3). The main point of view presented in this article that the author is looking at are Bonheur, Brooks, and Gluck’s true intentions of wearing pants, shirts, and ties, which was not to display themselves as a man but to step away from gender roles in their society and to show that they are independent, determined, and intransigent female individuals (Lampela 4). Brooks, Bonheur, and Gluck were able to distinguish themselves as lesbians instead as conventional women; and it is with their courageous act that positively affected their life’s work and allowed other lesbians to have an identity as who they are in the next century (Lampela

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