Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for Art Historians

FIRST THINGS FIRST . . . .

From including pronouns on profiles to making feminist memes, critical gender theory is more present than ever before in popular American culture. However, many students are still unfamiliar with the history and details of this discourse. This lesson plan offers an introduction to core concepts in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies as they relate to the history of art. It is intended to be placed at the beginning of a course to provide tools and terminology that can be used throughout the semester. Three main areas are addressed. First, students will learn to differentiate assigned gender from Judith Butler’s ideas of gender as a construction or performance. Then, they will see how race complicates issues of sexism and identity through Kimberlé Crenshaw’s writings on intersectionality. Finally, the lesson turns to sexual identity and romantic identity by unpacking the LGBTQIA+ acronym. Across these three subtopics, historiography is an important theme as terminology and attitudes are in constant evolution. Key works from different eras illustrate each point, yet one work of art – Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party – anchors the discussion. 

 

Background Readings

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: The British Broadcasting Company and Penguin Books, 1972.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.

———. Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Buick, Kirsten Pai. Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History’s Black and Indian Subject. Durham, NC:    Duke University Press, 2010. 

Chicago, Judy, and Schapiro, Miriam. “Female Imagery.” Womanspace Journal (1973), 14.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. On Intersectionality: Essential Writings. New York: The New Press, 2017.

hooks, bell. “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.” In Black Looks: Race and  Representation. Boston: South End Press,        1992, 115-31.

———. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. London: Taylor and Francis, 2014.

Jones, Amelia, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003.

———. “The ‘Sexual Politics’ of The Dinner Party: A Critical Context.” In Amelia Jones, ed., Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago’s Dinner  Party in Feminist Art History. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996, 84-118.

Katz, Jonathan D. “What Judy Chicago’s Work Reveals About Toxic Masculinity.” Artsy. 2019.

Lippard, Lucy. From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc.  1976.

Lord, Catherine, and Meyer, Richard, eds. Art & Queer Culture. Second revised edition. London: Phaidon, 2019.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16 no. 3 (Autumn 1975): 6–18.

Nochlin, Linda. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” In Woman in Sexist Society: Studies in Power and Powerlessness,    edited by Vivian Gornick and Barbara Moran. New York: Basic Books, 1971.

Perchuk, Andrew, and Posner, Helaine. The Masculine Masquerade: Masculinity and Representation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,  1995.

Respini, Eva. “Will the Real Cindy Sherman Please Stand Up?” In Cindy Sherman. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2012. 

Vaid-Menon, Alok. Beyond the Gender Binary. New York: Penguin, 2020.

 

Glossary

Many of the following terms are adapted from the PFLAG National Glossary which is a valuable resource for many additional terms related to women, gender, and sexuality. 

• Assigned Sex – The sex assigned to an infant at birth based on the child’s visible sex organs, including genitalia and other physical characteristics. These include male, female, and intersex.
• (Bio) Essentialism – Short for biological essentialism. Reliance or weaponization of biology in an attempt to disprove trans people’s genders. Common bioessentialist arguments reduce people to their chromosomes (though there are more than 30 chromosome combinations that people have); their genitalia (though there are many natural variations); or their binary gender (though gender and sex are not binary).
• Cisgender – (pronounced sis-gender): A term used to refer to an individual whose gender identity aligns with the sex assigned to them at birth. The prefix cis- comes from the Latin word for “on the same side as.” People who are both cisgender and heterosexual are sometimes referred to as cishet (pronounced “sis-het”) individuals. The term cisgender is not a slur. People who are not trans should avoid calling themselves “normal” and instead refer to themselves as cisgender or cis.
• Gay – A term used to describe people who are emotionally, romantically, and/or physically attracted to people of the same gender (e.g., gay man, gay people). In contemporary contexts, lesbian is often a preferred term for women, though many women use the term gay to describe themselves. The term should not be used as an umbrella term for LGBTQ+ people, e.g. “the gay community,” because it excludes other sexual orientations and genders. Avoid using gay in a disparaging manner, e.g. “that’s so gay,” as a synonym for stupid or bad.
• Gender – Broadly, gender is a set of socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate related to a person’s assigned sex.
• Gender Binary – The disproven concept that there are only two genders, male and female, and that everyone must be one or the other. Also often misused to assert that gender is biologically determined. This concept also reinforces the idea that men and women are opposites and have different roles in society. “Binary” refers to someone who fits into the gender binary. 
• Gender Expression – The manner in which a person communicates about gender to others through external means such as clothing, appearance, or mannerisms. This communication may be conscious or subconscious and may or may not reflect their gender identity or sexual orientation. While most people’s understandings of gender expressions relate to masculinity and femininity, there are countless combinations that may incorporate both masculine and feminine expressions, or neither, through androgynous expressions. All people have gender expressions, and an individual’s gender expression does not automatically imply one’s gender identity.
• Gender Identity – A person’s deeply held core sense of self in relation to gender. Gender identity does not always correspond to biological sex. Gender identity is a separate concept from sexuality and gender expression.
• Gender Non–Conforming (GNC) – An umbrella term for those who do not follow gender stereotypes, or who expand ideas of gender expression or gender identity. GNC does NOT mean non-binary and cisgender people can be GNC as well. It is important to respect and use the terms people use for themselves, regardless of any prior associations or ideas about those terms. While some parents and allies use the term “gender expansive,” gender non-conforming is the preferred term by the LGBTQ+ community; always use the term preferred by an individual with whom you are interacting.
• Gender Performance / Construction Theory – Coined by Judith Butler, gender performance theory is the concept that people do not have inherent genders based on their biological sex. According to this theory, people continually perform their genders, instead of relying on their assigned sexes to determine their genders for them.
• Heteronormativity – The assumption that everyone is heterosexual and that heterosexuality is superior to all other sexualities. This includes the often implicitly held idea that heterosexuality is the norm and that other sexualities are “different” or “abnormal.”
• Intersectionality – Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, this term refers to the overlap of social categorizations or identities such as race and ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, geography, and class which exist in an individual or group of people that can contribute to discrimination or disadvantage.
• Intersex – People whose bodies exhibit characteristics associated with both male and female biology. This can be through variations in hormones, chromosomes, internal or external genitalia, or any combination of primary and/or secondary sex characteristics. While intersex people can be assigned intersex at birth, many are not. As intersex is about biological sex, it is distinct from gender identity and sexual orientation. An intersex person can be of any gender identity and can also be of any sexual orientation and any romantic orientation. Formerly, the medical terms hermaphrodite and pseudohermaphrodite were used; these terms are now considered neither acceptable nor scientifically accurate.
• LGBTQIA+ – An acronym that collectively refers to individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and/or asexual. The “+” represents those who are part of the community but for whom LGBTQIA does not accurately capture or reflect their identity.
• Male Gaze – Coined by Laura Mulvey, this term describes how women in visual media are often depicted and perceived through a masculine, heterosexual lens. It suggests that women are reduced to their appearance and objectified for male pleasure rather than portrayed as fully realized individuals with agency. 
• Nonbinary – Refers to people who do not subscribe to the gender binary. They might exist between or beyond the man-woman binary. It can also be combined with other descriptors e.g. nonbinary woman or transmasc nonbinary. Language is imperfect, so it’s important to trust and respect the words that nonbinary people use to describe their genders and experiences. Nonbinary people may understand their identity as falling under the transgender umbrella, and may thus identify as transgender. Sometimes abbreviated as NB or Enby, the term NB has been used historically to mean non-Black, so those referring to nonbinary people should avoid using NB.
• Queer – A term used by some LGBTQIA+ people to describe themselves and/or their community. Reclaimed from its earlier negative use–and valued by some for its defiance–the term is also considered by some to be inclusive of the entire community and by others who find it to be an appropriate term to describe their more fluid identities. Traditionally a negative or pejorative term for people who are LGBTQIA+, some people within the community dislike the term. Due to its varying meanings, use this word only when self-identifying or quoting an individual who self-identifies as queer (i.e., “My cousin identifies as queer” or “My cousin is a queer person”).
• Romantic Orientation – Romantic orientation refers to an individual’s pattern of romantic attraction based on a person’s gender(s) regardless of one’s sexual orientation. Romantic orientations and sexual orientations are not mutually exclusive. For some people, they are the same (e.g.,. they are pansexual and panromantic), while they may be completely different for other people (e.g. they are asexual and biromantic). Examples include alloromantic, aromantic, biromantic, demiromantic, grayromantic, heteroromantic, homoromantic, omniromantic, panromantic, polyromantic, transromantic, aroflux. 
• Second-Wave Feminism – The generation of feminists active during the 1960s and 1970s. Whereas first-wave feminists focused on legal issues such as the right to vote, second-wave feminists also tackled cultural issues such as stereotypes, gender expectations, and economic inequality. They were later criticized by Third-Wave Feminists for their focus on middle-class white women’s issues and binary, essentialist view of gender.
• Sexual Orientation – The sexual attraction toward other people or no people. While sexual activity involves the choices one makes regarding behavior, one’s sexual activity does not define one’s sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is part of the human condition, and all people have one. Typically, it is attraction that helps determine orientation. Examples include allosexual, asexual, bisexual, demisexual, gray asexual, heterosexual, homosexual, monosexual, omnisexual, pansexual, bicurious, lesbian, gay, homoflexible, MLM, MSM, and questioning. 
• Social Construction Theory – The idea that many of the institutions, expectations, and identities that we consider natural have been created and shaped by societies and people who came before us. Things that are socially constructed still have very real influences and consequences, even if they are not based on an inherent truth. Social constructs can be reconstructed in order to better fit the society and culture they govern.
• Third–Wave Feminism – Emerging in the late 1980s and 1990s, this movement sought to validate a wider range of lived experiences, identities, and choices than Second-Wave Feminism. It built on the Postmodern movement to deconstruct preconceived ideas of gender as binary and tied to sex. 
• Transgender –A term describing a person’s gender identity that does not necessarily match their assigned sex at birth. Transgender people may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically to match their gender identity. This word is also used as an umbrella term to describe groups of people who transcend conventional expectations of gender identity or expression. Common acronyms and terms include female to male (or FTM), male to female (or MTF), assigned male at birth (or AMAB), assigned female at birth (or AFAB), nonbinary, and gender-expansive. Often shortened to “Trans,” which is often considered more inclusive than transgender because it includes transgender, transsexual, transmasc, transfem, and those who simply use the word trans.

 

CONTENT SUGGESTIONS

 

 

Timeline                                                                                                                                                             

In one hour and fifteen-minute lecture you should be able to cover the following:                               

• Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, mixed-media installation, 1974-1979
• Key concepts from Judith Butler and Gender Performativity
• Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #6, 1977, gelatin silver print
• Key concepts from Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze
• Judy Chicago, “Sojourner Truth,” detail from The Dinner Party, mixed-media installation, 1974-1979
• Key concepts from Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Intersectionality
• Portrait of Edmonia Lewis, 1870, Albumen silver print
• Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867, Carrara marble
• Edmonia Lewis, The Old Arrow Maker, 1866, marble
• Judy Chicago, “Sappho,” detail from The Dinner Party mixed-media installation, 1974-1979
• Catherine Opie, Rusty, 2008, photograph

Click for images: slide presentation.

Key questions for the lecture: 

• What are the best practices for talking about gender, sexuality, and race? 
• How do these different components of one’s identity relate to one another?
• How have cultural definitions of gender and sexuality changed over time?
• In what ways might gender theory be applied to the study of art history? 

 

Introduction to the topic

Gender and sexuality are part of our everyday lives and visual culture. Yet talking about these concepts can sometimes be uncomfortable. Accordingly, this introductory lesson plan helps students build a vocabulary in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies that can be used throughout the semester. It will cover three main areas: gender identity, intersectional identity, and sexual identity. For each concept, we will hear from feminist scholars who have made important contributions to how we understand the visual culture of gender. These writings illustrate how popular understandings about these concepts have changed over time, and the best practices for discussing them are constantly evolving. Because these concepts can be abstract and complex, one work of art – Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party – is used to anchor the discussion.

 

Lesson

The scholarship on women’s, gender, and sexuality studies is vast; it requires more than one class session to familiarize students with the foundational concepts they will need to understand the art they will encounter in a gender-focused art history course. The present lesson plan covers just one class session. This session generally follows a separate class session focusing on sexism and the exclusion of women and other minoritized groups from the art world by presenting current statistics and an in-class reading of an excerpt of Linda Nochlin’s “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” 

Students are thus primed to begin the lesson at hand with an artwork that redresses these exclusions: Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party. After a basic overview of this work’s materials, meaning, and reception, inform the class that the many positive outcomes of this installation were accompanied by critique from both the right and the left. If you assigned bell hooks’ “Come Closer to Feminism,” you might pose the question to students: “Why might critics have not wanted to ‘come closer’ to The Dinner Party?” Hopefully they will guess that the vaginal imagery may have angered critics. You can then share a selection of critical responses to illustrate hooks’ main point that many people judge feminism to produce a stereotype of “bad feminists”: “how ‘they’ hate men; how ‘they’ want to go against nature — and god; how ‘they’ are all lesbians; how ‘they’ are taking all the jobs and making the world hard for white men, who do not stand a chance.” In fact, the movement is takes many nuanced forms of expression, and many feminists seek to not only lift up women but all members of society. 

Looking at The Dinner Party from another point of view, students may or may not suggest that a possible progressive critique of The Dinner Party is its focus on biological sex. This is an opportunity to mention historiography and the limitations of Chicago’s second-wave feminism that were later observed by third-wave feminists who challenge its (bio)essentialism. You can explain how the assigned sexes of male, female, and intersex differ from gender expression and gender identity. The terms transgender, cisgender, and nonbinary can be introduced here as well. 

As a challenge to second-wave essentialism, Judith Butler’s idea of gender performance or social construction theory posits that gender is “a stylized repetition of acts.” There is no self preceding or outside the gendered self, and a person creates their gender by impersonating acts from social sources such as family members and the media. As Butler elaborates, “Gender is an impersonation . . . becoming gendered involves impersonating an ideal that nobody actually inhabits.” To illustrate this, Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #6 is a helpful example to discuss. Ask students, “How is Sherman performing gender in this photograph? What poses, items, or other visual evidence does she use to construct her gender?” Because Sherman ironically caters to heteronormative expectations for her based on her biological sex, this is a good juncture to bring in Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,” Mulvey writes, “pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female…In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.”

Returning to the home-base of The Dinner Party, note that another progressive critique of this project was its lack of diversity. Sojourner Truth was the only black woman represented, and her place setting was approached differently than the others. Looking at a detail of the Sojourner Truth setting, can students spot how? Faces are shown rather than a vulva – a possible sign that black women’s sexuality was unimaginable to white women, according to art historian Amelia Jones. This segues into a discussion of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Intersectionality.” Individuals who belong to more than one identity group, such as black women, not only face the discrimination that comes from belonging to each group, but to distinct, hybrid forms of prejudice as people who belong to both groups – or as black women. An effective case study to demonstrate intersectionality is Edmonia Lewis, who was of African American and Native American (Mississauga Ojibwe) descent. Show the class her sculptural groups Forever Free and The Old Arrow Maker, and pose the same question that art historian Kirsten Pai Buick explores in her monograph: How are the men and women represented differently? Why are the men the bearers of race whereas the women are whitewashed? Lewis had to navigate the intersection of sexism and racism in her work. In order to advocate for her race she needed to represent it somehow, but to lay claim to proper femininity as defined by white women she had to depict the women according to white beauty standards.

Other forms of identity that might contribute to someone’s intersectional experience are sexual orientation and romantic orientation. Using Sappho’s place setting in The Dinner Party as a background image, break down the acronym LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual) with the caveat that there are many more possible ways that people might identify. As a lesbian photographer, Catherine Opie embodies just one of these identities. Rusty from her series High School Football also illustrates a final concept – masculinity. It can be helpful to mention masculinity early in the semester, because masculinity is so dominant it can become invisible to students (see delivery suggestions for more). Pose the question: “How is Rusty performing his masculinity here?” Coming full circle to The Dinner Party, could you ever imagine a table that includes men? The rest of the semester will build upon some of the core vocabulary and concepts from today’s lesson to explore these and other vital questions facing contemporary feminist art historians. 

 

DELIVERY SUGGESTIONS

The importance of understanding foundational concepts in gender studies is not hard to communicate to students. After all, our visual culture is saturated with messages about gender and sexuality! However, students’ personal connection to the material is also one of the many challenges of discussing this content. Depending on the composition of the class, students who belong to minorities may feel scrutinized when an aspect of their identity is being discussed. To prevent this, I make a blanket statement up-front that no one should ever feel pressured to “represent” any given group, though they are always welcome to share personal experiences or expertise if they choose. I state that it is not my intention to teach someone about their own identity, especially if I do not share it, and that their lived experience of race, gender, or sexuality is always more valid than my academic knowledge of it.

Another group that often feels alienated, or even villainized, in a course on women in art is cisgender men. This lesson provides a valuable occasion to affirm that masculinity is also a gender identity that comes with its own challenges and rewards that will be explored as part of the class. I also stress that we should talk about structures such as patriarchy rather than individuals, which can unburden individual male students. If things ever do get too personal, redirecting the conversation back to the artist or author’s perspective can diffuse a heated situation.  

Yet another challenge of this lesson is that best practices for discussing identity are always changing. It can be difficult to stay up-to-date with acronyms and vocabulary related to gender and sexuality, and students may have their own preferences as well. Again, a good way to handle this issue is to state outright that you are not the final authority on this material and invite students to share their own knowledge. Another rapidly-changing condition to teaching gender studies are national and state level policies against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This is a particularly challenging lesson to adapt to these policies, but in such a climate it may be worth stressing that you are exposing students to authors and artists’ perspectives rather than promoting your own agenda.

Finally, this is a lot of content to cover. This can easily be broken up into several class sections. Alternately, the different subsections can be attached to thematic lesson plans that are sprinkled throughout the semester. For example, the mini unit on sexuality can be paired with William Simmons’ “Queer-Feminist Art History,” or the discussion of intersectionality could be saved for a lesson on artists of color. Variations for different levels of difficulty are also possible. More advanced students can handle original passages of Judith Butler and other critical theorists, whereas less advanced students benefit from excerpts or summaries of their dense writing. Because courses on women and/or gender in Art History count toward General Education requirements and/or Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minors, Majors, and Certificates at many universities, it is also likely that you could encounter an unusual combination of students: advanced art history students and WGSS or Gen Ed students with no art historical background. To support these students, you can provide readings and resources that give crash courses on doing visual analysis and using art historical vocabulary (see Further Resources). It is also encouraging to remind the class that studying gender and art is an interdisciplinary endeavor, and students from every background bring a valuable and unique perspective!

 

AT THE END OF CLASS…

In this lesson, we have compiled a set of terms and concepts related to gender and sexuality that we can bring to our study of the history of art for the rest of the semester. Some of this vocabulary may have been new to you, while others are well-versed in it. Either way, language is fluid, and there is always more to learn and update as we seek to better understand one another and the visual world we inhabit. Coming out of this lesson, I hope we have established a common ground to speak with one another about gender and sexuality in art from an informed, empathetic perspective. 

 

FURTHER RESOURCES

Harbin, Brielle, & Roberts, updated by Leah Marion Roberts, “Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary in the  University Classroom.”  Nashville: Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University, 2020.

Sathy, Viji, and Hogan, Kelly A. “How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 22, 2019.

PFLAG. PFLAG National Glossary.

Queerspawn Resource Project. Living Language Guide. 

Harris, Beth, and Zucker, Steven. “How to do Visual (Formal) Analysis in Art History.” Khan Academy.