With my early work I got eviscerated by my male professors, and so you learned to disguise your impulses, as many women have done. And thats definitely changed.
Judy ChicagoRead
Because men have a history, it is difficult for them to imagine what it is like to grow up without one, or the sense of personal expansion that comes from discovering that we women have a worthy heritage. Along with pride often comes rage β rage that one has been deprived of such a significant knowledge.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the challenge of recognizing the importance of women's history and heritage, which can lead to feelings of anger when this knowledge is lacking.
In this quote, Judy Chicago reflects on the struggles that arise from a lack of awareness of women's contributions to history. She suggests that men, having their own historical narratives, may find it hard to empathize with the experience of growing up without recognition of women's valuable heritage. This lack of knowledge can invoke feelings of pride for those who uncover it, but it can also breed rage due to the realization of significant historical omissions.
Themes
HeritageWomenHistoryPrideRageKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a women's rights rally to highlight the importance of recognizing women's contributions to history.
More from Judy Chicago
All quotes βBecause we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel. The goal of The Dinner Party is to break this cycle.
Judy ChicagoRead
I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.
Judy ChicagoRead
Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn't always lead to action. Many of the women had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.
Judy ChicagoRead
Ah, well, do I wish that we lived in a world where gender didn't figure so prominently? Of course. Do I even think about myself as a woman when I go to make art? Of course not.
Judy ChicagoRead
Even if I am simply one more woman laying one more brick in the foundation of a new and more humane world, it is enough to make me rise eagerly from my bed each morning and face the challenge of breaking the historic silence that has held women captive for so long.
Judy ChicagoRead
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