Sarah Maple is an artist, not a designer, but I feel that this idea can extend to all creative disciplines. (Also I’m quite a fan of Maple, so any excuse to knock on her inbox, I’ll take it.) Maple’s work is fantastically feminist, what I really love about it, is how she boldly takes on taboo. You just have to take one look at ‘Menstruate with pride’ to see how she’s sticking a finger up to, by which I mean intellectually challenging and visually debating, preconceived notions of women’s roles within society. Screw you tampax, you oppressive bastards, or something to that effect.
If you fancy drooling over her work too, take a look at: www.sarahmaple.com, also I picked up this print about 5mins ago on a whim: http://bit.ly/TMDz12 considering sticking this to the front door, because doormats are sooo 2011.
Now onto the serious stuff:
Where does this gender divide begin, I personally suspect it starts in education. Maple noticed by her third year in Uni men were treated differently to women, she says “I found that the men were immediately taken more seriously and the girls got a lot more of a harder time in crits. It was as if the guys had automatic respect for their ideas and the women had to fight harder for any recognition at the same level”
I completely agree, I’m fortunate enough not to experience this in my educational institution, but in a broader sense it bugs me that I have to work twenty times harder than my male counterparts. Not because I dislike hard work (I love hard work), but because my hard work would never be valued in the same way. Arguably if you’re a heterosexual white guy with a middle class background, then things tend to be in your favour most of the time. They could produce the same work and be just as competent as me but are considerably more likely to succeed due to the way society is set up.
At this point a few of you might say ‘Whoa, back up now Soof, take a chill pill that’s just you seeing the world like some sort of feminist Matrix’ I wish it was, I really do. Maple makes a brilliant point about when she went to a talk at the Tate “I saw the statistics in the differences in the number of shows given to women and the number given to men. On the majority of big galleries it is at least 75% male” What’s more is when you really start getting all heavy with the numbers this imbalance is happening across the board from art, to design to architecture.
It’s not just a few of us kicking up a fuss over nothing. Women are seemingly hidden from mainstream art and design. Yes, yes, there are a few names but why only a ‘few’? Surely the world is 50/50 (well technically 48/52: men/women) gender wise, why isn't that reflected everywhere, naturally? Where are all the women?
You could argue actually forget this whole 50/50 split thing, there aren’tenough women going into design education which in turn means there are probably less female designers out there to get the numbers you’re after. Good point, well made, *falls to knees with hands in the air in a dramatic fashion* but WHY?!
As mentioned before its seems harder for us to get into and also it might be because there aren’t enough role models and if there are, they’re little known, so we assume there aren’t any. Maple agrees: “One of the most inspiring quotes I heard from a feminist was 'you can't be what you can't see.' And i think it is as simple as this, like the way advertising works. You emulate what is around you. I think if women do not see other women living successfully as designers subconsciously they will choose another path.” The woman is a god-damn poet, I tell you!
So far this has just been me throwing around ideas and questions at strangers. I still don’t have a definite answer and I’m reluctant to pin this down to one thing. Everything here is just ponderings and should in no way be considered as an answer or fact. I suppose this is just a big exercise in pondering and pondering I am. (Lovely word: pondering)
I’d like to end this ponder-rant (coining this term for everyday use) with something said by Maple which makes me think ‘all is not lost’: “We need to get more female creatives out there and cause a viral affect to inspire more women.” To which I say: Let’s go Fenton on this shit. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GRSbr0EYYU)
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Thank you to Sarah Maple for taking her time to respond to all my questions and hopefully for not suing me for stealing the above picture from her site.
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