Response to "Cripping Sex and Gender"

After reading "Cripping Sex and Gender": Expandng Forums of Representation in conjunction with Clare I've re-realized that many of the images I hold up as valid, beautiful, strong represenations of visual culture are exclusive, prejudiced representations of an ableist society looking to perpetuate the images of those who are normal bodied. 

Reading Emily Bock's contribution to the panel reminded me of a very powerful, moving and poignant series by a famous American feminist artist Hannah Wilke. Wilke was often cited and claimed by the women's liberation movement of the 1960's while simultaneously rebuked by some feminists for using herself as a model for many of her works and glamorizing herself in order to attract male attention and sell more of her art pieces.

What intensified her conflicted past was her doubling or addition, as introduced by Kristin Lindgren, as a woman, a woman artist, as a feminist and as someone with an illness. The concept of doubling seems to be a serious double edged sword, something that could reduce individuals to simply their identifiers. But Wilke took on the academy of history of art, its entire legacy, her cancer and her career with her final series intra-venus (I think it was actually published post-humously too). I added the link below to see some of the photos and works in the series.

http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/exhsolo/exhwil94.html