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Women in the Picture: What Culture Does with Female Bodies
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59/99
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Scholars' Citation Index
77/99
Volume of Reviews
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About This Book
Art historian Catherine McCormack challenges how culture teaches us to see and value women, their bodies, and their lives. Venus, maiden, wife, mother, monster―women have been bound so long by these restrictive roles, codified by patriarchal culture, that we scarcely see them. Catherine McCormack illuminates the assumptions behind these stereotypes whether writ large or subtly hidden. She ranges through Western art―think Titian, Botticelli, and Millais―and the image-saturated world of fashion photographs, advertisements, and social media, and boldly counters these depictions by turning to the work of women artists like Morisot, Ringgold, Lacy, and Walker, who offer alternative images for exploring women's identity, sexuality, race, and power in more complex ways. 20 illustrations
Reviews
"A timely, succinct, aesthetic inquiry into debates about sexuality, objectification, and representation."
"This eye-opening work will leave readers with plenty to ponder."
"One sentence plods after another ..."
"In the end, my frustration with these oversights won out, not least because I would have enjoyed seeing where McCormack, an astute critic, would go if her book hadn't topped out at 223 pages."
"She gives only minimal consideration to the question of what is to be done with problematic images of women if we can't just lock them up ..."
"Her intended audience is a general rather than a scholarly readership, but obscure references, meandering text, and a British slant may pose a challenge for the American layperson—still, anyone going to an art museum after reading this volume will likely find much to discuss ..."
"The relitigation of these issues reads as an attempt to be 'topical,' which feels unnecessary given the timeliness of the work overall ..."
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