When I started crossdressing again more than a year and half ago, I had no idea where it would take me, so I just went with it, and let it happen.
Now I find I have come to question almost every assumption our culture makes regarding gender and I hope I live to see the day when the words "masculine" and "feminine" are considered outdated and outmoded.
So it goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the new exhibit at the Russell Sage College Gallery on the downtown Troy campus, "One Thousand Golden Twelve-Inch Fashion Dolls." Created by the Wild Women Artists' Collective from Ithica, New York, the exhibit is a 3 dimensional collage of gender-bending, iconoclasic imagery featuring that mother of all female icons, none other than Barbie herself.
I should mention now that this exhibit is not designed to single out the Barbie doll. The artists were careful to spell her name "Barbi" so as to avoid any suggestion of taking issue with Matel's reigning queen. In fact, many of the dolls in the exhibit were not the genuin thing, although they all had that hour-glass figure that only an injection molded woman could have.
The exhibit opened on December 6th with a reception at 5pm. The reception was billed as a "come dressed as your favorite fashion doll" affair, and I'm happy to say that both men and women took the atrists up on that invitation.
Inspired in part by the best seller "Women Who Run With The Wolves," by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the exhibit questions traditional gender roles by placing the image of Barbi in some not-so-typical settings: "Militia Barbi," "Anorexia Barbi," "Safe Sex Barbi," "Post-Partum Depressed Barbi," ...
You start to get the idea.
If satire and sarcasm are not your favorite forms of social and political commentary, then avoid this exhibit. Otherwise, be prepared for a powerful commentary on culture and gender brought to life in a way that only those who have lived as a woman in our society could express.
From the "Gorilla Girls" display:
The Advantages Of Being A Woman Artist
- Working without the pressures of success.
- Not having to be in shows with men.
- Having an escape from the art world in your four free-lance jobs.
- Knowing your career might pick up after you are 80.
- Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.
- Not being stuck in a tenured teaching position.
- Seeing your idea live on in the work of others.
- Having the opportunity to choose between career and motherhood.
- Not having to choke on those big cigars or paint in those Italian suits.
- Having more time to work after your mate dumps you for someone younger.
- Being included in revised versions of art history.
- Not having to undergo the embarrassment of being called a genius.
- Getting your picture in art magazines wearing a gorilla suit.
Enough said. Enter the gallery....
You can get more information about the
at their web site.
