Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.
May SartonRead
If art is not to be life-enhancing, what is it to be? Half the world is feminine - why is there resentment at a female-oriented art? Nobody asks The Tale of Genji to be masculine! Women certainly learn a lot from books oriented toward a masculine world. Why is not the reverse also true? Or are men really so afraid of women's creativity?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the value placed on feminine art and invites reflection on gender biases in creativity.
May Sarton's quote challenges the prevailing attitudes towards feminine-oriented art, suggesting that art should enhance life regardless of its gender orientation. Sarton points out the imbalance in the appreciation of art based on gender and asks why feminine perspectives are often marginalized or resented, while masculine art is universally accepted, emphasizing that both genders can learn from each other's experiences and expressions in art.
Themes
ArtFeminineCreativityGenderExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about gender representation in the arts, one could quote this to highlight the importance of diverse expressions.
More from May Sarton
All quotes →Pain can make a whole winter bright, like fever, force us to live deep and hard.
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She became for me an island of light, fun, wisdom where I could run with my discoveries and torments and hopes at any time of day and find welcome.
May SartonRead
Wrinkles here and there seem unimportant compared to the Gestalt of the whole person I have become in this past year.
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Here life goes on, even and monotonous on the surface, full of lightning, of summits and of despair, in its depths. We have now arrived at a stage in life so rich in new perceptions that cannot be transmitted to those at another stage - one feels at the same time full of so much gentleness and so much despair - the enigma of this life grows, grows, drowns one and crushes one, then all of a sudden in a supreme moment of light one becomes aware of the sacred.
May SartonRead
I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep.... Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.
May SartonRead
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