Yesterday's (or was it today's) Times had an article celebrating the final homecoming of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party to the Brooklyn Art Museum -- where it will live from here on out. Ahh....yes. I remember Chicago's last visit to the Brooklyn Museum (perhaps I wrote about this before?). I was pregnant. Chicago gave a talk in a huge autotorium. There was a young woman all but in the last row with a child making the tiniest bit of noise. Chicago made a huge deal about this and refused to continue until the woman left. I saw the woman shortly afterward in the bathroom crying. She explained that she really wanted to see the lecture and could not get a babysitter.
Chicago bills herself as the ultimate feminist and protector of women's rights. Whose rights was she protecting in this case? Shouldn't a single mother get equal protection? So many women, from what I noticed, in the Dinner Party are not mothers. I was also in a class once where a girl said that Chicago spoke at her college graduation and said that women cannot be artists and mothers. Huh?
As feminists, we need to stand up for the rights of EVERY woman, no matter her choices. We also need to accept that women are not men -- and for some-- motherhood is part of the equation.
There are so many fabulous women at The Dinner Table. Too bad their creator is not fit to eat with them.
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