Economic Downturns a Predictor For Misogyny
If I could time travel I would tell André Breton to touch grass
Litsperation: Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement by Whitney Chadwick
In my recent trip to the Tate Britain I bought two books one of them being the ‘litsperation’ (Literary Inspiration) for this post. In the ‘Woman Artists and The Surrealist Movement’ we meet the male founders of the movement and the women artists they spent time with. What stood out to me was the fact that although I had never met these men before, they were so familiar. I felt as though I really had met these men before , and I had met them! I had encountered them in the form of the ‘faux-ally’, a man who only uses female liberation for his own personal gain. The Surrealist were obsessed with their paradoxical ideas of what a woman should be, not with women themselves.
‘The Surrealist revolution failed in its bid to resolve the conflict between a nineteenth-century image of woman as passive, dependent, and defined through her relationship to an active male presence, and a more contemporary demand for female autonomy and independence’
- Whitney Chadwick, “Search for a Muse”
I think this has parallels to the men with mics, who devote hours to talking about women and never getting to know an actual woman. Men who only like the idea of a woman but not the human being. The really interesting part is the timeframe that these of men exist in, the Surrealist Men grew up in economic collapse and used art as an outlet to escape what they perceived as the rigid confines of society and the Podcast Bros grew up during the economic crash of 2008 and are disillusioned with the reality being presented to them. In their youth both groups of men were presented with women being objects of pleasure and met with human beings that they were supposed to value. Each group was born in the 90s and found their platform in the 20s - André Breton published his ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ in 1924! Instead of seeking out liberation both groups chose to focus their attention on what a women should be. It is not enough to simply find one’s own freedom but they must oppress another group in order to feel somewhat satiated, with the bleak cost of living crisis in each period.
The next logical question would be what were the women doing in both timeframes? This we will unpack after I finish reading ‘Yellow Book Lives: Decadent Women’ by Jad Adams in which he explores the lives of women writers in the 19th century.
Another question could be, is an economic boom inversely correlated to misogyny?
I have not yet finished the ‘Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement’ book so this is by no means a review or what the book is mainly about, it is just my initial thoughts on a particular topic. I will be writing a book review along with my favourite pieces and artists I have found as a result of reading this book. Until then I will see you next week x
If you could time travel, which artist would you tell to touch grass?
When people say “history repeats itself” or the more edgy “history often rhymes”, it’s with an event where you can draw similarities between and make an extrapolated conclusion. But this? This is a mirror, this is symmetry. When people often discuss the rise of conservatism, populism and fascism during economically unstable periods, they tend to use women as a measure. The lipstick indicator, the hemline index, being more outwardly religious but they (or I don’t see them) rarely discuss what men are doing during these times. And that’s so interesting. They use women as you stated as a way to assuage themselves of their place in the hierarchy, in society. They yap and yap about women failing to extend humanity to women. Humanity and all its trappings belongs to them, to men. Women are just an extension, a trophy to certify themselves as real men, and when they can’t place in the podium, they want women to be consolation prizes. They can’t have it both though, a trophy to show off and a consolation prize to make yourself feel better because hey! At least you participated and tried, maybe not your best, but you tired!
So what do they do? They steal, complain, mock and embarrass. Huh. What a time to be alive. Just like the last time and the time before that since misogyny was.
Thank you for this! I look forward to your review of the book and your later work. Also apologies if this reads off, I’m currently fighting a cold which has hands like, well, like a something.