WARNING! Okay rant time about art and feminism. If you don't like such things, please move along for your own sanity's sake. You are not required to read.
........ I am extremely disappointed in the the glass blowing art competition been watching/listening to as I draw. This was the first art or cooking or makeup or whatever competition thing where I honestly for the very first time went 'these judges are culturally insensitive', and mind most of the time I think accusations of cultural insensitivity are exaggerated, over blown or the result of easily fixable ignorance and the guilty party quiet happily wants to learn the correct stuff about the culture. I did not get that impression with how the little Asian girl's works where treated by the judges. Yes several of her pieces did fall short on execution and skill, but the comments where often against her Japanese heritage and how she worked it into her works. But that is not what got me super hot under the collar.
The show ended with two final contestants, an ultra feminist (I admit she had great humor and a lot of her work was fun, I really liked her thinker foot stepping in chewing gum, but she was also a big ass at times and rather one note) and a guy that was a dad. That is literally the best way to describe him. Everything he did was about his son and leaving a future for him and the dude was amazing in technical skill and making glass look like glass as well as whatever else it was suppose to look like. Yes you can say that is one note as well but he tackled a broader range of themes then the feminist. And to be honest, it was a close neck and neck challenge, both were polar opposites and both very good at their respective styles.
But the feminist won. It was because the one female judge went 'this piece is about you and female domination and dealing with male controlled spaces, I deal with a lot if not all the same issues' and the two dude judges just went, 'well we can't argue with you miss female judge, looks like you made the choice all ready' and that was that (side note, if i use ' ' marks it means I'm paraphrasing or summarizing. If I use " " it means I am quoting). If the feminist had won based on her skill and the humor of the work I would have been cool with it and went good for her and applauded. But winning simply because 'woman strong, man bad' makes me sick.
Maybe its because I am a woman that comes across as 'masculine', a tom boy (though today's definition of that seems to mean a butch lesbian or a tran that don't know they are tran yet which is NOT what a tom boy originally was back in the 80s when I was born. A tom boy is just a girl who likes pants and getting dirty and sports or games or science and is load and boisterous or precocious and uninhibited. Her sexual orientation has NOTHING to do with her interests and personality and she's normally very cool and comfortable being a girl), and I value family, togetherness, harmony and warm fuzzies over divide and conquer, but I honestly liked most of the dad artist's works better. I liked the whimsy, the child like innocence, and the slight dark of needing to protect and leaving something behind in an uncertain world, as cliche as it might have been. There is nothing wrong with cliche if done right. Maybe its because I can't have kids myself though I have always wanted them badly, or that I have such a super close relationship with my dad, that I prefer an artist like this dad guy over the feminist.
Over all this show has done nothing but remind me of why I dislike fine artists. I was trained and raised (mom is an artist too but like me she's a mixed bag, both a fine artist and a draftsman where I am a graphic designer, an illustrator/story teller and a hentai artist) to be a fine artist. I was neck deep in it through my youth and collage years. The fine art world is restrictive even though it claims to be open with out boundaries and free thinking, its elitist, its more about social issues and political commentary then art (to be fair though, the evolution of art has often gone hand in hand with political unrest and issues of the times but lately it has been going to far and thus loosing that art part of fine art), and frankly there is this focus on who is the better 'bullshit artist' rather then skilled artist. Its about who can sell a basketball suspended in water for a million dollars rather then who can paint a breathtaking canvas that will inspire generations to come. And they STILL look down upon graphic designers and commercial artists who are STILL considered 'not real artists'.
Yes I do work symbolism and metaphors, I tell stories and invoke emotions, and sometimes I add a drop or two of personal stuff and political commentary into my own work. And I do fall pry to some of the things I dislike about fine artists sometimes myself. I'm human. I make mistakes. And I have to reconcile and work with both the nurture and nature things that make up me. I have to reconcile both the 'snobbish' or 'aristocratic' fine artist trying to change the world or become famous and the 'pedestrian' or 'plebeian' designer trying to make a living and just share their story.
I'm just getting so tired of preference and special treatment being given to one note causes regardless of if they are artistically and aesthetically good or not over people who are genuinely skilled at what they do. And this is not just in the art world. Carpenters, writers, mechanics, engineers, photographers and other craftsmen, creators, inventors and artists of both creative and mundane things are experiencing this same problem. You can draw no better then a 4 year old, and what your drawing can be completely unrecognizable, but if you say its about woman power, you'll get a gallery showing before the girl or guy that draws better then Michelangelo or Picasso or Van Gogh. If you happen to have a vagina but only a rudimentary knowledge of how to rebuild a car engine, you'll get a job before the seasoned girl or guy that has been doing it for 30 years all ready. The all mighty tatas who claim to want to make women and men equal are doing the complete opposite by getting special treatment because they are female rather then they are actually equal and just as good at the thing as the guys. Its subverting their claimed goals, unless their goals always were a free ride rather then actually proving they can do anything the boys can do and better in some cases. Knock it off. Stop being hypocrites and put your money where your mouth is and not between your legs. And that is coming from a hentai artist fully aware of the fact sex sells.
If you got it, flaunt it. But don't forget to use your brain and your heart too.
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