juliesexercise

The body is political.

From the words of Adrienne Rich, I can grasp how our gender, race, social class, and geographical position are intertwined attributes that each of us carries on their bodies. Our body is our frame of reference onto the world and the contact and interactions with other bodies are regulated by institutions and rules that we as a society have built. The rules and institutions that we created though, but at the top of our society only one specific body and favorite the progression: the white male.

From this starting point, the writer analyzes her position within society and her role in female society and especially the feminist movement. Adrienne Rich explains how she thought her voice was been heard for all the women out there, when she realizes that even within the feminist movement there's division, between white and black feminists.

When reading this, a book that I recently read comes to my mind. It's a collection of essays by Audre Lorde called "The Master's tool will never dismantle the Master's house". The essay came out the same year as paper 1984. Audre Lorde in this essay calls out white feminists on how they have excluded black feminists from the main gathering, or chosen last-minute to fill in. Moreover, she addresses how the diversity of women's bodies, location, and social class is not taken into consideration by the white feminists, this creates a division within the movement, but also it portrays the same structure of hierarchy and exclusivity that is on the base of patriarchal society.

I find Adrienne Rich follows the same line of thought of Audre Lorde's essay, but from the perspective of her identity, which is white and American. The difference in the writer's identities offers a view on how the power dynamics function and how they shape institutions that control society and how they impact us directly.
A recurrent theme that follows in Adrienne Rich's text is the definition of we. We are a concept that we as humans, students, women, workers are divided by categories and shape by the role that we are being given, but we are a standard that we don't have, the white male standard.

To have a more inclusive and balanced society, Adrienne Rich concludes that we are a concept that has to be more specific and defined by us at the center within the category and not by the standard that is limited to only one group of people. A category that is not including and not acknowledging the diversity of each body, race, and gender.

I look at my position in relation to the makers as a maker myself, so I would define the artists through my position as an artist myself, so questioning how they interpret different subjects and themes, their choice of style, and what medium they use.

In this case, I am a viewer. In the example, I chose its art I saw at an exhibition, social media platforms, or I have a personal connection to the maker. As a viewer, I am located where I have access to the art and the maker. I am also aware of the context where I am and where the art is situated. I then question as a white western woman, the artist's perspective and context, and relegating to myself and where I stand in relation to the maker.

For example the artist I choose as a black woman artist is an artist I saw recently during an exhibition in Rotterdam at Weelde café.

The work is extremely touching since it regards women killings in the neighborhood of Wakiso in Uganda that go silenced. My position as a white western woman is that I will never be able to know what it is like to be a black woman in Africa, but I know what it means to be a woman and femicide is something I am familiar with, because Italy has the highest number of femicides in Europe, and I have a close experience with violence against women.

Another point I want to make is the place where the exhibition has taken place, which is not a known art institution, but an art space/cafe/restaurant/skate park and the event was organized by Kontra Rotterdam a local feminist organization. When taking all these elements into consideration, It gives the work and the artist different importance, only because the space is situated in.