What is feminism?
Rebeca West once famously said “feminism is the radical
notion that women are people,” This basically –in short- implying that feminism
is the hunt for equality in both the genders.
However this movement is not bound only to women, men also whilst being
the more dominant sex, also have a journey to travel upon before they reach
‘full humanity’ (redletterpress.org, 2014)
There are three main categories in feminism, socialist,
reformist and radical feminism.
Luis Royo and Feminism
This entry is going to highlight the key aspects of feminism
in Luis Royos works. Royo uses a mixture of techniques to achieve his highly
detailed works, starting from a detailed and toned sketch, which he transfers
onto a canvas, and then paints either with airbrush or oils and ends with a
finished product that can only be described as to be made by mixed media.
Many if not all of Royos works have images of women in them,
they are portrayed mostly as strong, powerful characters in these
illustrations. The artist tends to pose the women either sexually or as
warriors of sorts. The illustrations, vast amounts of nudity and sexually
explicit material draw in the male gaze and can be said to sexually exploit the
female form. Whether this exploitation is a pro or a con will be discussed.
My
immediate reaction after looking at Royos works is that they have a high
resemblance with soft core pornography or at least images of it. Many of them
incorporate seductive poses accompanied by a dark or vicious background or
other imagery. A sense of irony is around also; Luis Royo, a male, is making a
living of selling art works that would be either be pro feminism or anti
feminism, if this were too had been a female artist, all the feminist movements
from the eruption of Luis Royo career would have embraced her and her art
works. Almost like that of the art works of the late Anita Stekel who was known for chafing at the limits that
men had historically set for women (Nastasi, 2012)
Royo N.D, Fallen Angel)
The above illustration portrays an angel comforting a fallen
angel. Again in this image the female – even though not in the foreground- is
the more powerful and bold figure. She comforts the other angel who looks
clearly in despair. The image shows the
female and male figure both to be nude and both somewhat covering their private
areas. This can be said to be a kind of equality and kinship in the genders.
Both the genders in this illustration are covering the same areas as the
other. Even that the female -who is
seemingly in command in this picture- is embracing the man shows that there is
some kind of caring or loving feeling between the two.
However, in the opposite direction some radical feminists
would argue that the male is still to dominating, even though he is almost in a
submissive state. It can be said that the male is too muscular or that the
female has been covered up by the male to show his status as the dominant sex. I
would also say that the male in the image has some kind of covering upon his
body whereas the image of the female is completely naked. In old Greek art
works (and some of other cultures) the female figure when nude was said to be a
representation of sexual desire and that they ‘embody the divinity of
procreation’ where as a nude male is to represent an ideal athletic specimen (sorabella, 2014) this again would be something that a reformist feminist
would point a finger at and question the artist in their choice of selecting
the imagery used. I recall a lecturer once saying that female nudity in
artworks was the closest that pre-camera civilization could get to pornography whilst
not actually watching it live.
Another aspect of this illustration is a common phrase used
by a lot of feminists ‘behind every great man there is a great woman’. This can
be associated with this image in a manner; the image itself can also be
interpreted as a female angel in the male figures life, as she consoles him.
Linda Napikoski stated that ‘women’s experiences must be expressed through art
where they had previously been ignored or trivialised’ (Napaikoski, 2014) this
illustration is a prime example of doing so.
The female here is seen to be kind of nurturing the male figure out of
whatever difficulty he may be going through, to be the female behind the going
to be successful.
The female being portrayed as an angel is very key in this
image, especially when we know that the fallen angel is the male. It shows a
kind of rank or hierarchy being shown. We also know from the Holy Bible angelic
beings are of male gender, if their names are not enough we have quotes from
the Bible, Luke 24:4 ‘(at Jesus’ tomb) while they were wondering about this
suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed light lightning stood beside them’ (Cane, 1807) . It was only after the first four
centuries of Christianity that the image of an angel was created (martin 2001)
so the fact that this angel is a female could also be seen as a pro feministic
point.
(Royo, N.D,
Fakk)
The above image is a an artwork that depicts a warrior
female woman who looks to be celebrating some kind of victory and standing
upon a large hill of what I presume to
be male alien figures whom appeared to be slain by her.
Commodity feminism; the pose in this illustration indicates
an aggressive and commanding female dominating whatever battle she has gained
victory in.
Women in general would see this image and think one of two
thoughts, either they would think that it is just a sexual image created for
men’s purpose or that the image is created to empower the female gender.
This illustration has a very sexual pose interpreted by the
artist to give it a powerful yet feminine appeal. The outfit along with the
boots looks like a bondage suit which can be seen as a degrading thing to many
women, many feminists could interpret the suit to be a kind of metaphor for
chains that the wearer is in, in the view of a radical feminist- the chains of
being a female in a wrongly male orientated society. The pose with the gun can also been seen as
sexual simply because she is hold the gun, which Joanna Robinson of Pajiba love
states are just a metaphor for a giant penis. (Robinson 2014).
On the other side of the coin a radical feminist would be
inclined to accept that the powerful imagery used by the artist does empower
females, it could be said that an adaptation of this illustration could be used
as an image to represent them. They tend to target the male psychology and
biology as the main reason for the oppression (Redletterpress.org, 2014). The gun being a
metaphor for the male genitalia makes this illustration very pro feminine,
especially when seen through that lens.
The female standing on top of the pile of dead corpses could also be
viewed by a socialist feminist to be as yet another metaphor, this could be an
imagery of the female gender not only standing on but completely crushing and
dominating the male gender but actually crushing a visual representation of the
capital system.
To summarise I would say the Louis Royos art works can be interpreted in
many different ways, and can be used to represent a vast amount of political or
non-political movements just by viewing them through a different lens. The vast
amounts of his works portray the female form empowered and in charge of
whatever the context of the illustration is either by body language or by
different types of imagery. In no way do I think that the women used in the
images are degrading the female gender or submitting to male desires, they are
in fact flaunting their assets in attempt to seduce and manipulate their male
equals.
By Abdul Shakoor Wali Mohamed
1101239
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