Bibliography
Lolette Kuby, “The Hoodwinking of the Women’s Movement: Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” (1979), Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 6, no. 3 (1981): pp. 127-129.
Key concepts/ideas/assumptions
The ‘playboy’ and the ‘penthouse’ do a better job at promoting female parts than this feminist art piece.
If a man or men had created the art piece, it would have been seen as sexist.
Thesis
The Dinner Party is, as a feminist piece of art, too simplistic.
Throughout her review, Kuby notes that the art piece does not have a deep metaphor. Rather, the piece presents obvious imagery of the female genetilia, and not much else.
Furthermore, Kuby notes that much of the art’s features are merely decoration, and that they don’t add anything substantial.
Quotes
“Before I talk about The Dinner Party, I should explain
“where I’m coming from” so that those who believe that
moral values and aesthetic values lie on two separate
planes can be alerted to my frame of reference, and so
that active feminists may know I am not an imposter, a
fringe sympathizer, or a late entrant to the movement.” She has authority on the subject.
“Had a man, or men, created TheDinnerParty, women
would rightfully have been infuriated. They would have
boycotted and picketed.” The piece can be seen as sexist, and it relies on the creator not to be treated as such.
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