The Red Tent - An Unforgettable Testimony to Women’s Strength and Power
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant illuminates one of the greatest testimonies to women’s strength: childbirth. On a creative level, Diamant did something extraordinary. She took a small passage from the Bible about the character Dinah, and made her story into an unforgettable testimony to women’s strength and power. Overlooking women’s role in Biblical life is easy because there is practically nothing written by or about women. Even though Diamant’s story is fictionalized, there is truth in showing that women did exist, that there was a very important role played by women of that time period, and in showing the power and strength of women in a way that can never be forgotten.
Images inspired by Diamant’s work flooded my conscious. Perhaps I was experiencing flashes of my rememory, my collective unconscious coming to life on the paper in front of me. However, it was not just The Red Tent providing me with stimulation, but other works such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, Mary Oliver’s “The Fish,” Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” and The Book of Genesis. Each work embodied themes of childbirth and motherhood to self-love and social standing, in which I could find connections that affected me creatively. Aesthetically, I intended my visual art to be full and consistent in texture and fecund in my use of sensuous lines. My hope is to celebrate women and the strength that comes from battling adversity, challenge, victimization and in actualizing the power of childbirth. In all of these works, a connection is made: these are stories of women that need to be remembered and cel...
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...or the strength and power that they possess. Inspired by other great women artists, my intent was to capture that strength and power brought to life through their words. In a world where women’s lives, contributions and powers are easily overlooked and forgotten, my hope is to give a voice to the strength of women.
Works Cited
Diamant, Anita. The Red Tent. New York: Picador, 1997.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
Oliver, Mary. “The Fish.” Twelve Moons. Little, Brown and Co., 1979.
Shange, Ntozake. “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.” Ed. 1st Collier Books. Ntozake Shange: New York, 1977.
Sullivan, Stephanie. The Dinner Party. N.pag. On-line. Internet. 7 May 2001 Available WWW: http://public.csusm.edu/public/thedinnerparty/index.html
The Catholic Study Bible, The Book of Genesis.
Roark, James L., Michael P. Johnson, Patricia C. Cohen, Sarah Stage, and Susan M. Hartmann. The American Promise: A History of the United States. 5th ed. Vol. 2. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.
In Diamant’s powerful novel The Red Tent the ever-silent Dinah from the 34th chapter of Gensis is finally given her own voice, and the story she tells is a much different one than expected. With the guiding hands of her four “mothers”, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, all the wives of Jacob, we grow with Dinah from her childhood in Mesoptamia through puberty, where she is then entered into the “red tent”, and well off into her adulthood from Cannan to Egypt. Throughout her journey we learn how the red tent is constantly looked upon for encouragement, solace, and comfort. It is where women go once a month during menstration, where they have their babies, were they dwell in illness and most importantly, where they tell their stories, passing on wisdom and spinning collective memories. “Their stories were like the offerings of hope and strength poured out before the Queen of Heavens, only these gifts were not for any god or goddess—but for me” (3). It essentially becomes a symbol of womanly strength, love and learning and serves as the basis for relationships between mothers, sisters, and daughters.
Woman, I is the first in a series of de Kooning works on the theme of Woman, of which there are six in the series. The group is influenced by images ranging from Paleolithic fertility fetishes to American billboards, and the attributes of this particular figure seem to range from the venge...
Women in pictorial history have often been used as objects; figures that passively exist for visual consumption or as catalyst for male protagonists. Anne Hollander in her book Fabric of Vision takes the idea of women as objects to a new level in her chapter “Women as Dress”. Hollander presents the reader with an argument that beginning in the mid 19th century artists created women that ceased to exist outside of their elegantly dressed state. These women, Hollander argues, have no body, only dress. This concept, while persuasive, is lacking footing which I will attempt to provide in the following essay. In order to do this, the work of James Tissot (b. 1836 d. 1902) will further cement the idea of “women as dress” while the work of Berthe
Roark, James L. et al., eds. The American Promise: A Compact, Vol. I: To 1877. 3rd edition. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Scott, Elizabeth, M.S. “Music and Your Body: How Music Affects Us and Why Music Therapy
Roark, James L. The American Promise: A Compact History. 4th. ed. Volume 1: 1877. New York: BEDFORD/ST. MARTIN'S, 2010. Print.
...autiful creatures and deserve everything life has to offer. When gathered together, nothing can destroy the strength of a woman. Guidance from parents, at a very young age, can help mold the minds of the young children in today’s society. This world has become overpopulated with greed and hate. The only way to get past the hatred and violence is to love thy neighbor, and protect our young from the unnecessary violence that can be eliminated with love for one another.
During the Art Deco era the calla lily became one of the most popular flowers around. Whether in florist shops or on artist canvases the calla lily became a recurring theme. Like many flowers before it the calla lily came to be more than a flower on its own but it represented the idea of femininity. The calla lily was used by artists such as Tamara de Lempicka, Diego Rivera and Georgia O’Keeffe as a symbol of femininity and feminism. Through examining their works, in relation to their own lives and the events of the day, I will explore how the calla lily came to represent a new type on femininity and feminism.
The picture is a scale in which the female side is higher than the male side. Women have always been since as less than a man, an outlook that can be traced all the way back to the bible. According to the bible, Eve was created from Adams rib, which was supposed to be construed as his loving her because she was made of his flesh has been corrupted that women are less than a man. Even the United States, the pioneer of freedom and rights, still pays a woman less than a man. A women’s opinion is still doubted or in some cases not even listened to especially when they hold positions of power. In third world countries, if a woman is attacked or raped it is her fault, just because she is a woman. Infanticide, the killing of female babies, is still predominant in areas all over the world. Mothers rid themselves of girl children so that they don’t have to worry about dishonor or providing a dowry. This killing of females is also represented in the art. This artwork should remain on Tejon Street as a reminder as how far we have come as women and how we have much work ahead of us in order to get true
Roark, James, et al. The American Promise: A History of the United States, 4th ed. Boston:
The Book Of Ruth plays an integral role in Christian women history and theology as it illustrates how patriarchal system lessens the worth of women. The narrative account of Ruth reveals how society, at that time, confines women in a patriarchal system that does not always value women. In spite of this, Ruth learns how to use the patriarchal world to her advantage and serves as a great role model for women today.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
Aiming to gratify others has a tendency of making people act in ways other than their usual self. As one begins to act the way others want them to they begin to lose distinctiveness and individuality. For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange is about a specific set of women, who aim to please a certain man or different men. Each woman is hurt in some way by a man and as they progress throughout the series of “choreopoems”, they alter themselves in different ways to cause an effect upon the various men they associate themselves with. As the women describe their experiences, it is obvious that they make drastic changes in themselves. These women lose purpose and become confused, bitter, scared, and frustrated about their lives. Consequently, the ladies have negative outward reactions that are similar to each other, making the women easy to stereotype. The women in For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf have the opportunity to narrate their own stories; however, they choose to emphasize the influence of men in their lives, thus illustrating how susceptible they are to stereotyping and making them weakened as individuals.
Feminism has been an extremely controversial and significant subject over the centuries. The issue of equality between men and women have been questioned and exceedingly debated upon, why men were treated and considered the ‘superior’ gender. During the 1960’s, civil rights, protests against war and gay and lesbian movements were at its peak. It was the period of time, which the Feminist art movement had emerged, also known as the “second-wave” of feminism, shifting away from modernism. Women wanted to gain equal rights as men within the art world. Feminist artists such as Cindy Sherman, Carolee Schneemann and Hannah Wilke pursued to change the world and perspectives on women through their artworks, specifically in body art. Their goal was to “influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes.” (DiTolla. T, 2013)