she is robbed daily. This response is one we all
felt during initial stages of our feminism, when
we first became conscious of the shame and
self-dislike we had buried for so long, before we
were ready to reshape our own feelings by
taking pride in ourselves, other women, and art
that dealt with these subjects.

The reactions of the women at Aerospace are
not, | suspect, uncommon. | doubt very much
that a minority of Black workers in a predomi-
nantly white work environment would find it
any easier to respond to an exhibition of art
exposing painful aspects of the experience of
being Black in American society; or that Detroit
factory workers, for example, readily identify
with the realistic presentation in Rivera’s mural
of the hardships of factory work1 There is,
however, an important difference between the
situation of women and other workers. Regard-
less of their status, women are subject to their
oppression as women which crosses class
boundaries. In addition to their job or profes-
sion—whether factory worker, teacher, nurse,
doctor, engineer, or scientist—women still do
the unpaid, endless, menial labor of housework,
bear children and carry the sole responsibility of
raising them. All women are potential rape
victims, and all women live in a male-dominated
society which is based on various cultural ver-
sions of enslavement and denies women’s
culture 1

Those women who had not attempted to step
out of female role-conditioning in their jobs at
Aerospace were more oppressed than other
workers because they received lower wages and
had lower professional status. They were the
most offended by the show. The middle-class
women who rebelled against female role-
conditioning in their jobs at Aerospace (the
engineers, programmers, scientists) were the
only ones who had developed a feminist con-
sciousness and reacted favorably to the exhibi-
tion. For example, in a letter of support, one
woman expressed her response to the exhibition
and the protesters’ views:

That women have suffered personally and pro-
fessionally from conditions ranging from lack of
opportunity to manipulation and even exploit-
ation on the basis that they are women is un-
comfortable to face.

The Art Exhibition, a high quality collection
of some very honest and courageous works, was
unusually rich in content for those of us who in
some way or another have “been there.” Al-
though there was a deliberate intent to shock, it
was as a means to focus emotionally on the art;
it was not propagandistic. These are personal
and esthetic interpretations of some of the hard
truths encountered by women, and the obscen-
ity lies in the fact that these wrongs arise be-
cause of wide-range departure from good hu-
man values.

Those who want to oppose smut should look
for it in our politics, in our mores, in the man-

agement of our corporations, in our personal
relationships.15

In her review of the exhibition Melinda Worz
concluded:

The Female Experience in Art offers a wide
panorama of contemporary women'’s attitudes.
...t is gratifying to see such a high quality
show outside the established sacred halls of art,
as part of a working environment 16

In thinking now about this exhibition, | realize
that it was unrealistic to expect an enthusiastic
reception, or even acceptance, for art like this
among female viewers who were not already
feminists, or somewhat sympathetic to femi-
nism. It might have seemed that the work was
not perceived for what it was—but on the con-
trary it was in fact accurately perceived, and
found objectionable. Such response is typical
when feminism is introduced into a male-
dominated culture.

For those women at Aerospace who were
sympathetic to feminism, the exhibition was a
positive experience providing a new awareness
of the existence of women'’s culture created by
contemporary feminists. In that sense the ex-
hibition did broaden the audience for contem-
porary feminist art. For some of these women
who previously had no particular interest in art,
the exhibition was a beginning of what has since
become an ongoing interest and commit-
ment to women’s art.

| am still thinking about one piece in the show,
which | would like to own if | had money. |
decided that if | bought art, it would be wom-
en’s art because of my commitment to feminist
artists.17

Earlier that same summer, my colleagues and
| in the Feminist Studio Workshop18 had come
to a collective definition of feminist art based
on our goals, experiences, and observation of
our students’ work. We defined the function of
feminist art as raising consciousness, inviting
dialogue, and transforming culture. It became
clear to me that both the individual art exhibited
at Aerospace and the exhibition as a whole in
fact realized these goals to the extent that was
possible in that time and space.

1. The exhibition also provided a good starting point for
sorting out my own views on the more complex issues
of feminist content and female sensibility in art, though
| prefer the term “female form language” to “female
sensibility” or “female imagery” because the latter have
come to be identified with one specific, biologically
oriented theory.

2. Funding limitations did not permit the inclusion of
works by artists who reside outside of the L.A. area.

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