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As a newbie to the Critical Feminist Studies course, I do not have much to post on except for my interpretation of the posted image and Three Guineas. I read Three Guineas first, and then looked at the image, an image of three expressions (no reason for this particular order). Upon viewing the image, I, too, thought it was an image of women. Perhaps it was because, as mpottash mentioned in her post, the nature of a feminist class that presupposed that this image was one of women. I think another part of the reason I was quick to assume it was a representation of women was due to the fact that the faces show emotion and self-expression—a quality ordinarily attributed to women.

In the image, it is clear that the face on the left is crying and the face on the left is full of anger and disgust (I say this because of her closed fist). The face in the middle, one that resembles a sort of tribal mask, is hard to interpret. The face lacks expression, or any other form of emotion. I see the face in the middle as a single woman and the two faces on the left and right as a visual representation of the two modes of this woman’s personality—sad, grieving(L) and forceful, dominating ( R ). The circle around the faces illustrates the fact that women are enclosed, suppressed.

I do not possess any knowledge or understanding of art or how to go about interpreting art, but I can say with confidence that I have never seen any type of drawing, painting or illustration with a man expressing any sort of emotion. In this regard, one comes to accept that women are more expressive of their feelings than are men, who detach themselves from any means of self-expression. At this point, I would like to integrate my reading of Three Guineas.

There is a point in Book One where Woolf questions why women do not fight in war. She says there is: “some glory, some necessity, some satisfaction in fighting which [women] have never felt of enjoyed (Woolf 4).” When I read this, it distinguished men as being cold-hearted and distant, people who find pleasure in brutality that is war. From this one of Woolf’s quotes, I extracted that women are more emotionally affected than are men, thus clarifying my assumption that the image is one of self-expressing women.

Expressing your feelings is a quality that is, arguably, not a callous one to have. I do not understand, then, why it is made out to be.