Power vs.
Passivity
“It is important to keep in mind that one of the most important functions of
ideology is to veil the overt power relations obtaining in society at a
particular moment in history by making them appear to be part of the natural,
eternal order of things.” (1)
Part of the nature of social politics is to believe in something
so much it is considered naturally accruing not just a theory of thought or
helpful tool to power. The assumption that play’s out in these famous and
sometimes disturbing paintings is the inherent weakness and encouraged passivity
of women; also the natural or born right of the male gender to power and
violence to back up that power.
It is worthy to point out as Linda Nochlin does in Women,
Art, and Power that, “Women artist [and citizens] are often no more immune
to the blandishments of ideological discourses than their male contemporaries”
(2), since it is a social ideal that has ingrained itself within all social
minds lets us not envision “…dominant males … conspiratorially or even
consciously forcing their notions upon women”. (3)
This sort of thought, men in conrtol and women passivily looking on, is what the Suffrage Movement wanted to change by their powerful speechs and active pubic identity.
“It is important to keep in mind that one of the most important functions of
ideology is to veil the overt power relations obtaining in society at a
particular moment in history by making them appear to be part of the natural,
eternal order of things.” (1)
Part of the nature of social politics is to believe in something
so much it is considered naturally accruing not just a theory of thought or
helpful tool to power. The assumption that play’s out in these famous and
sometimes disturbing paintings is the inherent weakness and encouraged passivity
of women; also the natural or born right of the male gender to power and
violence to back up that power.
It is worthy to point out as Linda Nochlin does in Women,
Art, and Power that, “Women artist [and citizens] are often no more immune
to the blandishments of ideological discourses than their male contemporaries”
(2), since it is a social ideal that has ingrained itself within all social
minds lets us not envision “…dominant males … conspiratorially or even
consciously forcing their notions upon women”. (3)
This sort of thought, men in conrtol and women passivily looking on, is what the Suffrage Movement wanted to change by their powerful speechs and active pubic identity.
Oath of the Horatii
This said, it is still obvious that “strength and weakness are
understood to be the natural corollaries of gender difference” within many
previous and early 20th century paintings. (4) Take the oil
painting by Jacques Louis David painted in 1784 Oath
of the Horatii. Feminist artists and writers, like Nochlin have commented on
the paintings necessity of gender roles to make the painting
understandable,
"In the Horatii, the notion of woman’s passivity- and her propensity to give in to personal feelings- would appear to have existed for the artist as an available element of visual langue upon which the high intelligibility of the specific pictorial parole depends" (5)
And further point out
" …the particular narrative incident represented here-the moment when the three brothers, the Horatii, take a patriotic oath of allegiance to Rome on swords held before them by their father in the presence of the women and children of the family- is not to be found in Classical or post- Classical texts, but is in essence a Davidian invention… an invention which owes its revolutionary clarity precisely to the clear-cut opposition between masculine strength and feminine weakness offered by the ideological discourse of the period" (6)
The painting is depending on the fact that we see power as masculine strength and oppose it to feminine weakness that “…not something that needs to be thought about”. (7)
The image shows this contrast of gender position in many ways. Through the male characters taking up most of the canvas space and the women taking a small space in the corner, the representation of the male’s standing and the women sitting, the expressions of strength as the males take their oath and the fainting or incapacitated position of the women.
This said, it is still obvious that “strength and weakness are
understood to be the natural corollaries of gender difference” within many
previous and early 20th century paintings. (4) Take the oil
painting by Jacques Louis David painted in 1784 Oath
of the Horatii. Feminist artists and writers, like Nochlin have commented on
the paintings necessity of gender roles to make the painting
understandable,
"In the Horatii, the notion of woman’s passivity- and her propensity to give in to personal feelings- would appear to have existed for the artist as an available element of visual langue upon which the high intelligibility of the specific pictorial parole depends" (5)
And further point out
" …the particular narrative incident represented here-the moment when the three brothers, the Horatii, take a patriotic oath of allegiance to Rome on swords held before them by their father in the presence of the women and children of the family- is not to be found in Classical or post- Classical texts, but is in essence a Davidian invention… an invention which owes its revolutionary clarity precisely to the clear-cut opposition between masculine strength and feminine weakness offered by the ideological discourse of the period" (6)
The painting is depending on the fact that we see power as masculine strength and oppose it to feminine weakness that “…not something that needs to be thought about”. (7)
The image shows this contrast of gender position in many ways. Through the male characters taking up most of the canvas space and the women taking a small space in the corner, the representation of the male’s standing and the women sitting, the expressions of strength as the males take their oath and the fainting or incapacitated position of the women.
Representation of Nochlin’s Binary Division of Gender within
The Oath of the Horatii Art |
Male
Masculine Strength Male energy Tension Concentration |
Female
Feminine Resignation Flaccidity Relaxation Passivity |
This gender difference is further demonstrated in how the binary division’s messaged is so successful within the Horatii story to the viewers. If painters very like the 1791 The Oath of the Horatii by Armand Charles Caraffe people tend to find the representations as “week and confusing at the least in part because it fails to rely on the clear-cut “natural” opposition”. (8)
To expell this established ideology the suffragists combined the ideal dressing style and polite actions with overt physical force. (9)