User:GenderStudies/Why Gender - Gender Construction
This is an introductory article discussing gender studies in early modern visual culture which explains the construction and use of gender and how it can be applied to contemporary research and studies.
“Gender” as it is generally defined, is purely a manmade phenomenon found nowhere in nature. Gender is always socially constructed through societies’ norms, roles, and expectations. It is maintained through a system of differences; not only a biological sex, but also race and class, determining one’s position in the gender hierarchy. Gender hierarchy was developed and reinforced during the early modern period through hegemony by white male artists, writers, scientists and humanists. Ancient and medieval biological theory shaped the creation of a gendered hierarchy in the early modern period. For instance, Aristotle’s Katamenia proposed that women had a different physiology than men. This translated into the belief that woman was a botched and incomplete version of man.(Aristotle, Problems, xxx 954) These philosophies were reinforced through humanist theory, conduct books, historical and scientific writings, and the literacy and learning of different social groups as well as through visual culture.
Modern science has produced some evidence which casts doubt on the theory of gender as a solely social construct. There have been instances where families attempted to raise children according to gender norms that contradict the child's biological sex. Most famous among these cases is David Reimer. Such behavior among young children can be taken to mean that biological sex has some role in determining gender roles.
Early modern visual culture mediates the actual social identities of different groups during the period through the naturalization of images as reality. Portraiture demonstrates the way in which gender was used to reinforce values and morals that men expected women to exude. For example, the tendency to portray women with tilted head and downcast eyes signified obedience and lack of defiance.
This was a common characteristic associated with paintings of women during this period. Visual culture was an effective way for different social groups to interpret and internalize the lessons and expectations of society regardless of race, class, or educational level. Furthermore, women who were engaged in the production of visual culture were expected to represent traits that society deemed appropriate such as obedience, piousness, and chastity. Men commonly thought that great women artists were exceptions to the rule and had overcome the limitations of their sex, while still requiring them to fulfill period gender roles. For example, in his bibliography of Madonna Properzia de' Rossi, Vasari praises the artist's skill, but discusses her more in terms of her female attributes and virtue than in terms of her artist talent.
Visual culture was an important tool for self-fashioning during the early modern period. Renaissance society used visual imagery as a means for disseminating cultural ideals and values as well as for reinforcing members’ positions in society. Upon viewing these images, individuals would internalize the lessons presented through visual culture and fashion their identity and behavior in accordance with period ideals. Thus, early modern imagery was not only influenced by the gender hierarchy of the period, it also reinforced hierarchical roles and expectations.
Analyzing the construction of images from the early modern period through gender theory raises many questions regarding approaches to art history. Gender relates to more than just biological sex; social and economic factors also contribute to an individual’s place in the gender hierarchy. Studying art history through a gendered lens allows for multiple interpretations that challenge received assumptions and open up new possibilities for the future of art history. Gendering the period eye and analyzing the semiotics of gender in the early modern period are two methods through which art historians can approach their studies in a non-conformist way. These methods require research in not only art history but also history, literary studies and theory, and close readings of primary sources. This methodology gives a more thorough understanding of the period allowing visual culture to be evaluated using both, period notions and ideas as well as contemporary understandings and theories. This practice is important, as there are no histories apart from the histories we write.
This article has been intended to introduce, synthesize and summarize the topics of literacy and learning, self-fashioning, semiotics of gender, and gendering the period eye.
sources:
Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art and Society, 3rd ed, 2002
Steven Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: from More to Shakespeare, 1980
Fredrika Jacobs, "The Construction of a Life: Madonna Properzia De' Rossi 'Sultrice Bolognese." Word and Image, 1993
Giorgio Vasari, Vite, 1550
Merry Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, rev. ed.