Prejudice against women appear in so many places, even in place we would not have expected prejudice.
Aristotle's idea that the male is by nature superior and female inferior; Biblical statement of fall down Eden blamed on Eve. St Augustine and other religions leaders dictating that women are spiritually weak, sensual creatures that tempt men away from spiritual truths; Darwin's theory that sees women as a past lower state of civilization.
Many people our society looks to as intelligent or as morally guiding still have succumb to short-sightedness when they try to explain women. Society followed these people on history that thought female are inferior because they were authority figures. However in the 20th century, women struggled against this idea and wanted to support the idea that men and women are equal. This was a world wide movement. One of the New Zealand artists who participated in the feminist movement in New Zealand was Jan Nigro.
Sojourner Truth, albumen silver print, circa 1870
Portrait of Aristoteles. Pentelic marble, copy of ...
Saint Augustine of Hippo, a seminal thinker on the...Usually Feminism is against the painting of woman as a sexual object.
"For me as an artist, the human figure remains constant as the greatest and most lasting source of inspiration." - Jan Nigro.
One of her works called Bathers. She focuses on their vulnerability to the possibly hasty intentions of men. "It's a theme that Nigro has returned to again and again..." The two human figure looks like have been cut and paste on the landscape which lacks detail. They do not cast any shadows on the landscape and even little details on the body are missing. The head is faceless, the arms are missing. Nigro shows us what lustful men would see in women, which are not her parts of the body which serve as widows to soul. "I didn't use models, wanting to capture the sheer exuberance of living." The bright...