High: In my art history class today we discussed Judy Chicago’s, The Dinner Party, a configuration of a three-sided table set for 39 (13 on each side) famous women in history. Each of these place settings also illustrated the female genitalia, which holds importance with 1st generation feminists who were concerned with equating women with men on a biological basis. Chicago’s piece was criticized by both antifeminists and feminists. Antifeminists were insulted by The Dinner Party’s sheer massiveness, a characteristic of prestige and high art (done only by men) making it impossible to ignore (not to mention the ubiquitous vaginas). Feminists criticized Chicago for her portrayal on the basis of biological context because at the time, in the 1970’s, feminism was making a shift in its understanding of women and their roles in society based upon gender as a social construction rather than biology. In this way, Chicago placed herself in the essentialist trap further angering feminists because her powerful piece had undermined said transfer of feminists ideals into the 2nd generation. Anyway, my high of the day was coming up with the possibility that perhaps Chicago was trying to be ironic because men had for so long reduced women by the limitations of their biology and she was in a way throwing that back at them. Sort of like a fuck you.
Low: It started down pouring rain after my last class and so I made the wretched decision to go home instead of going to meditation club, which threw off my whole day. Luckily Emily did go and gave me the rundown: meditation retreat in Crete for a week. I think yes.
Learned: I learned that just because you don’t like someone when its just the two of you doesn’t mean you should write them off. I find this one person in my life currently very surface– does’t have anything important to say about anything– but in a group I really enjoyed this persons presence and I couldn’t imagine not being friends with this person. Even if we are just surface friends. Because that in and of itself does carry meaning. Do you ever think that the more oblivious one is the happier one can be? Perhaps there is something to be learned…
Gratitude: I’m grateful for my professors who truly care about their students and their wellbeing. One of my professors was late to class because she had to yell at the registrar for changing our class because now students were going to have to walk out in the rain to catch their cold. This is kind of a trivial example but it still means something to me none the less.
Nomads Land 