Bourgeois, and The Phallic Feminine

Can a Penis Be Feminist?

Can a penis as a work of art still be feminist? Louise Bourgeois is someone who blurs the line of femininity in art, and what it truly means to make a feminist work. As most artists are, Bourgeois was heavily influenced by her past, and in particular her fathers infidelity and her own fears of the world around her. Bourgeois was a French artist who moved to New York to continue her work. Her art ranges in scale and medium; from enormous sculptures of spiders, to small cloth dolls Louise Bourgeois spent most of her life challenging the every day.

All though her work was never to make a direct feminine stance, most of her work confronts the psychological idea of what it means to be a woman. As Louise poetically states, "Art is restoration; the idea is to repair the damages that are inflicted in life, to make something that is fragmented - which is what fear and anxiety do to a person - into something whole" Again, even though Bourgeois art is not directly pointed in direction of feminist art, the majority of her work does co-inside with the second wave of feminism. This wave dealt with issues such as sexuality, family, and equality of the work place, causing an ever lasting response to Louise Bourgeois' work.

---

fillette

"Fillette"

An interesting title from a French artist, translated "fillette" means little girl. This sculpture is anything but that. As an artist who tried to bend these traditional, and easily detectable gender symbols Bourgeois and her critics have seen this as a very fluid piece of artwork. This suspended sculpture has been viewed as not only obviously a penis hanging by the tip, but also a pair of breasts, with the shaft being a neck of a headless woman. The reason this piece is so interesting from a gender standpoint is because this is a very obvious rebellion of traditional genders. The second wave of feminism was all about having equality for the sexes which this piece pretty clearly provokes. Not only is Bourgeois making the viewer of "Fillette" take a step back and view a traditionally phallic symbol, but she is also having the viewer confront the idea of what really defines our gender. In a sense, Bourgeois is giving the power back to women through this piece through challenging the idea that the penis is something that is always male. By giving it the ambiguity of possibly being female breasts has not only other artists, people, and the pop culture of the time reconsidering what sex and gender really is. Along with sex and gender, this piece has regularly pushed the limits on virile energy, and complete and utter vulnerability.

Not only is the title a play on words the art itself causes quite a rush of emotion, if you can ignore that terrible pun. By seeing this suspended penis, you are confronted with the defenseless nature, taking away all power and stature from the historically most powerful sex.

The name may be a call to her fathers infidelity that Louise was confronted with as a young girl, but it also has a way of emasculating a two foot long penis by calling it a little girl.

In the end, the true meaning of the art will be kept a secret in Louise Bourgeois' grave. Do you think a penis can be a feminist symbol? Does this piece of art challenge your ideas of sex and gender?

I leave you with a quote from Louise Bourgeois, I advice you take it at face value, especially in this post.

"I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands." -Louise Bourgeois

To view another take on Louise's struggle with femininity and male constructs, watch this interesting video explaining some of her arts inspiration.