Do women have to be naked to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art?
The question is one of many that “She Said, She Said,” the newest exhibit at the Akron Art Museum, asks us to reckon with.
It’s posed in a piece created by the Guerilla Girls, an anonymous group of female artists who protect their identities by wearing gorilla masks. This piece, which features a gorilla head on a nude female figure, includes statistics:
Just 5% of the artists in the contemporary art collection at the New York museum, also known as the Met, are women.
At the same time, 85% of the collection’s nude portraits feature women.
I was excited to research this exhibit, and it did not disappoint when I visited the Akron Art Museum in person. I was immediately floored by the wide range of artists featured, the array of materials used to create these pieces and the wide variety of themes.
Themes include the body and how it’s portrayed in art, especially by male artists, appropriation, representation, the self and the ways women were left out of art movements — despite their notable contributions. What really ties everything together is this: There is not one solo female narrative. Each piece and every artist adds a new, unique perspective that makes this exhibit so special.
This exhibit raises lots of questions, yet the featured artists aren’t attempting to answer them. Rather, the pieces attempt to deepen conversations around ideas being brought up. That’s the hope with this month’s Words on the Street: to keep these conversations going and pick up where “She Said, She Said” left off.
‘Crying in H Mart’ by Michelle Zauner
I came to this book not realizing Michelle Zauner’s claim to fame was her role as the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast, the indie-rock band she started. After reading the book, you wouldn’t know she was not an author first and foremost. This work centers on Zauner’s mother’s diagnosis with pancreatic cancer and the grief that both precedes and follows her death. It also explores Zauner’s identity as Asian American and her ever-evolving relationship with this identity.
This book is so many things all at once. What has happened to Zauner is devastating, and the way she writes about it is multifaceted. The devastation shocks you to your core, but it’s also quiet, and it builds. The language Zauner uses is lyrical and honest, which feels true to Zauner herself.
‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus
Part historical fiction, part fantasy, this book centers around Elizabeth Zott, a 1960s chemist who, no matter how hard she tries, is not taken seriously because of one undeniable fact: She is a woman. Fast-forward years into the future: Zott hosts a cooking show where she not only shows women how chemistry can be used to cook but how it can help viewers face the challenges in their lives.
Zott is a character who is unique, quirky and true to herself. The (unfortunately) relevant themes of women having to work so much harder than their male counterparts in order to be taken seriously are just part of what makes this book so intriguing and engrossing.
‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison
Toni Morisson is an author who is able to so gracefully, so intentionally, weave memorable stories. This book is no exception. Here we follow Peecola Breedlove, a young Black girl who longs for blue eyes so she can feel beautiful and be treated similarly to how she sees the white children in America being treated.
At its core, this book explores the oppression of women by men and by society and how this treatment can lead to their downfall. This book contains graphic scenes of sexual violence. If that is something that could be triggering, I’d recommend doing more research on the book itself and reading reviews to better understand how these themes are addressed.
‘Meaty’ by Samantha Irby
In the debut collection of essays by the raunchy, unapologetic Samantha Irby, this book dives headfirst into failed relationships, Irby’s experiences with Crohn’s disease and navigating life as a Black woman in America. Irby spares no detail — the phrase “TMI” does not exist in her vocabulary. That’s what makes this book so funny.
While it’s hilarious, it’s also multifaceted. Irby shares stories of her childhood and the harsher realities of chronic health problems.
‘In the Dream House’ by Carmen Maria Machado
This book defies every preconceived notion regarding what memoir can be and how we talk about trauma and relationships, especially queer ones. Here, Machado chronicles a past relationship that began well but slowly began to sour and then turned abusive. To do this, she uses tropes to help communicate the complex feelings and experiences she faced during this time. These include choose-your-own adventure, comedy of errors, erotica and others.
This book is honest, painful and incredibly complex. Machado attempts to write a story that hasn’t been written. She is trying to expand our understanding of queer relationships into something that is malleable and allows more substantial room for error as well as understanding.
