Women in Traditional Chinese Painting

Xue Susu (ca. 1564-1637) Cicada on Leaf, Ink and color on silk fan

Confucius doctrines limited the ability of women to become painters throughout Chinese history. Their roles were subordinate to that of their father, husbands, and sons and their talents largely ignored by the male dominate literati. Instead, if they were seen in the world of painting, they were subject matters painted by male artists, thus leaving depictions of women under a male gaze. Among the ranks of known women painters, most were either noble women or prostitutes. Their situations allotted them the ability to express themselves – a privilege few other women enjoyed.

Banpo (ca. 4800 BCE) painted vessel

The history of Chinese painting goes back millenniums to early Neolithic rock paintings. Because none of the earlier paintings had artists attributed to them, we cannot know whether they are male or female. Perhaps both participated in the art. After all, new theories subverts the idea that there clear cut gender roles. The idea that these early Neolithic paintings were done by only men is now being challenge as faulty presupposition based cultural biases instead of studies.

Attributed to Zhou Feng in the Tang Dynasty, Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdress, ink and color on silk

As Chinese civilization continued, paintings steadily evolved into a sophisticated art form. Court paintings, especially, were used as symbols of power and prosperity. Religious painting also flourished. This is perhaps one of the few outlets where women painting were appreciated. Women who became devoted Buddhist could help paint sacred murals in temples. Likewise, women were depicted in central roles in Buddhists painting, in the form goddess and female Buddhas. Perhaps the most prolific of these women were depictions were of the Guanyin, the goddess of compassion and mercy. Court painting took a different route. Almost exclusively male, court painters depicted women in styles that suited their sexual taste. During the Tang Dynasty, voluptuous full figured women in gorgeous skill adorned many painting. These painting showed what noblemen desired in women rather than how women see themselves. These depictions of women carried well into the modern eras. Exception, of course, goes to those painting commissioned by women of power, who did demand their depictions were of equal strength to men.

Mogao cave paintings

Guan Daosheng, Bamboo Grove in Mist and Rain, ink on silk

Women painters took a different subject course. Unlike women painter of the West, Chinese women did not have a prolific number of self-portraits. Instead many of their paintings were that of rocks, flowers and trees accompanying local philosophy. Guan Daosheng (1262-1319), wife of the famed painter Zhao Mengfu, preferred Bamboo as a subject matter. In her paintings and writings she related her concern for her husband and children as well as spoke out against her husband’s idea of taking a concubine. While her art was appreciated, many critics saw her work as too masculine. They subverted traditional expectations of women because her strokes and lines were manly. Perhaps this was influenced by husband’s rough paintings that broke from the softness of earlier artists. In any case, her style broke away from traditional female expectations of artists. It is complimentary to her husband’s form that rejected artistic trends. Wen Shu (1595-1634) focused on the subjects of butterflies and flowers. She used inspirations available to her. Her style suggest strong knowledge in embroider. The productions of her painting often time finished with an inscription by her husband.

Ma Shouzhen, Narcissus, ink on silk

Prostitutes also knew how to paint, partly to entice the literati as customers and also partly because some of them had the agency to do so. In the male dominated society, prostitutes used their talents to get ahead and live comfortably. Many of these women become very intelligent and processed senses in the arts and literatures. Perhaps it is their inferior position in society that allowed the ability to think on their own and to test social boundaries. Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604) presented her paintings as gift to her favored client, an act that would have been presumptuous for women of other classes to do. In a subversive way their paintings were more free and intrepid than what would be expected of noble women.

There are important implications about the role of women in Chinese painting. The few women who were able enter the fields had the ability to challenge, even though limited, what society expected of their gender and of their abilities. In modern times, Chinese painting are now subjected to the type of commercialism that is found in all art. They are consumed as decorative art for the common folks, but many works carries some of the male gaze from earlier works. Perhaps it's time we reevaluate how we see women in Chinese painting - to see them as the creator and the thinker behind it rather than just the subject of it.

Hold Your Horses, Real Men

If you are ever around the blogger-spheres long enough, you will eventually run into blogs that serves as shrines dedicated to all sorts of bodies. These serves as the blogger’s ideals and desires about the human body and can range from celebrating androgynous people to hyper feminine/masculine. In of itself, there is nothing wrong with expressing your tastes in human bodies. We have our preferences; I tend to prefer varying expressions of masculinity. I like muscular men, as well as hairy men, and non-hairy men. I have preferences, but I don’t force others to conform to those preferences. What is troublesome is when you assume your tastes in body should be the default – that it is natural, or inheritably more desirable. Because then you place far too much value on the body and you begin making implications about the bodies of others. Often, these are unfortunate implications. As a gay man, I often run into blogs raving about “real men’s” body. First, let me say this is a real man’s body:



This is a real man’s body too:



And this:


And these:









These are all real men body, because these are all men. A man is not limited to a certain set of physical characteristic. Men and their body are dynamic, gradient, and negotiable. To say that the first picture is a real man and the others are not is exclusionary and ultimately detrimental – especially to gay men. Let’s take the first example. There are those who claim that a “real man” must be hairsuite. That statement leaves out so many other men and makes them to feel inferior. What of those men who cannot grow body hair through genetics? Can you really deny them as “real men” simply because they were born that way? As far as men go, all the people featured above are men. They aren’t prepubescent. They don’t identify as a women, though they may embrace femininity or have female reproductive organs. They are men, but classifying men under one physical archetype undermines that. Instead of being inclusive, we open ourselves to hierarchical thinking. We play into the very institutions that have oppressed us. Remember, to some people gay men aren’t real men. So how can we complain about the heternormative hierarchy denying us our manhood, when some of us will deny manhood to a feminine man, an androgynous man, a transman, a shaved man, a skinny man, a fat man and all other type of men?

Elevatorgate

If you have not notice, there has been much discussion over something that happened to Rebecca Watson in a skeptical conference in Dublin. A guy asked Ms. Watson for coffee in an elevator at 4 AM and was turned down, and Ms. Watson asked men to not put women in such uncomfortable positions. Doesn’t seem like much. Guys get turned down all the time, right?
Well, it is more than that really. You have to remember the social contexts that this all happened in. Unfortunately, men have not made women’s lives very easy in our society. We tell our boys that it is appropriate to be aggressive – to be the go-getter and get the ladies. We are told we need to be fierce and intimidating because that is what our modern ideal of men details. It is all about virility and getting laid. And if you cannot get laid you become the butt of comedy. Unfortunately this backfires when it comes to our interactions with women. Women are told that they are to be subservient, docile, and forever vestal. Well you can see what happens next. Men feel the “need” to force sex out of women, and it gets nasty. Even in our developed “civilized” world, 1 in 6 women are sexually assaulted. This is complicated by the fact that we call women “accusers” of rape and often we say “they deserve it” because of the way they acted or dress. They are made the criminals despite the fact that they are the victims. And that is the sad fact of our culture.
Okay, well men get assaulted too, right? Yes. Duh. But how often does one hear that a guy was “asking for it” because of the way he dressed or how flirty he was that night. In fact, how often does guy get sexually assaulted? Most guys (baring hate-crimes obviously) are assaulted because they have resources available to the mugger. Women can be assaulted because they are women. It is a guy’s privilege. We aren’t victims because we are guys – despite all the paranoia of a Femi-Nazi conspiracy against us. And we have a lot of privilege in this situation. Here, if we were on an elevator with a creeper we have these privileges:
• We don’t have to worry if that guy will rape us. We’re going to assume coffee actually means coffee and not something else. This is due to the fact that we don’t have to be cognizant of it as it rarely, if ever, happens to us. Women don’t have this privilege, not even here in “first world”.
• Due to our Western culturing to be aggressive, we are more likely to fight back if the guy did try something.
• The other guy will probably be more intimidated by us as guys. Despite movements forward, our culture still tells us that women are weaker.
• If the guy successfully assaults us, we won’t be blamed for acting slutty or anything like that. While you are tempted to use the popular parable of a rich looking guy being responsible for his own mugging because he shouldn’t be dressed like that in a ghetto neighborhood consider these things: when is anyone ever deserving to have their rights violate? Is a slutty girl more deserving of it than prime-n-proper Mary Sue? Does she not have the same basic rights to human dignity as the rest of us? Also the circumstances are different. The rich guy is being mugged for his resources; the “slut” is being raped because she’s a woman. Finally that scenario is unlikely because of a lot class privilege that I won’t get into right now.
Hopefully you understood that. But you’re probably still thinking. “But what if all he wanted is a coffee?” The answer is “How the [expletive] is she supposed to know that?” The matter of fact is that we men are all potential rapists. In technical terms we are Schrödinger’s rapists. They cannot tell which one of us is “the Nice Guy” or which one is the assailant. [Expletive] even I, a gay guy, am a Schrödinger’s rapist. I am “straight acting” and enough of a dude where women may see me as a threat. But I am not mad about it. Considering the context of the situation, it is reasonable. It was a potentially dangerous situation. I understand that, given our societies problem, a woman has every right to view me as a potential rapist. And if you are a nice guy, you shouldn’t be made either.
We really are the one to blame for this. We’ve given many women no reason to trust us. Our culture makes us out to be monsters for women. And we perpetuate it. We try to be the “bros” and the Tucker Max of our society. We assume things about women that we shouldn’t. We make them feel inferior or foolish with says like “dumb bitch”. We make them feel unwelcome when all we do is wank about ourselves. Even now, when all Ms. Watson try to do is explain that men at skeptical conferences make women uncomfortable by objectifying as potential sex dolls, we tell women to shut up. Even Richard Dawkins try to shut her up by saying her issue was trivial compare to women in other parts of the world. (And it is quite ironic too given our culture and the recent GOP legislation is effectively making it just as bad for women here as it is anywhere.) We cannot even give women space to talk. That’s how intrusive men come off as.
If you are really a nice guy, then consider this. Women owe nothing to us as a class. Don’t think that being a nice guy gets you a pass to do or say whatever to women. In fact, insisting that women listen to you, or that you are entitled to her time whether she wants it or not is a hallmark of a Nice Guy™. Being a Nice Guy™ is essentially being an entitled dick. A Nice Guy™ is not a nice guy. So this is from a dude to other dudes: If a woman says your being a creepy, listen to her. And don’t be a [expletive referring to male genitals] about it.
If you want, you can read Greta Christina’s take on the situation.

Gisaeng and Geisha: Then and now

Notice that modern portayals of Geisha and Gisaeng tends to emmulate western notions of orientalism and the hyper-feminization of Asian women.