Term of Award
Spring 2008
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Art
Committee Chair
Elizabeth Jane Pleak
Committee Member 1
Julie McGuire
Committee Member 2
Marc Moulton
Abstract
Life is one beauty pageant after another. There is always competition, be it physically or mentally. Societal rules have always determined the constructions of gender both accepted and taboo. My research explores how these social constructs pertaining to sexuality began and how they have been perpetuated throughout history in art. Because of my personal struggles with social constrictions as a woman, an artist, and as one whose sexual identity has been designed from these social constructs, I have explored women's roles as artists: how women and their sexuality have been portrayed in the past through artworks using various media; how the viewers of these artworks saw the women that were portrayed and society's reactions to these works of art. My intent here, and in my work, has been to focus on the construction and constrictions of female sexuality, beauty, and competition. I will also be discussing the role of sexuality as content in ceramics and how the influence of ceramic objects from history and the contemporary world has had on my own artwork. My interest also includes how western religious aspects control our sense of our bodies, the vagina for example, as the yawning mouth of hell (Blackledge, 51) and how these ideas form the construction of womanhood.
Recommended Citation
Clark, Gayle Shaw, "Sexuality: Social and Cultural Constructs of Women Represented through Art" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 139.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/139
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
