Object #7: The Dinner Party

         I wish I knew more about this installation, and one day hope to visit it in person. I first learned about Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in an art history course as the premier example of feminist art, which welcomed all women to sit at the table and celebrate their accomplishments. Or at least that’s how it was taught to me. At the time, it seemed a relatively non-threatening idea. And yet, it is problematic. The women at the table are either ancient or Western, with a few exceptions. They’re the ones you’d expect to find at this great immortalizing banquet. That’s always the problem with famous women – they’re exceptional and there are too few that everyone agrees on who should be seated at the table. Now, I think about the heritage floor. 999 women are represented there, their names inscribed on the floor. The interpretation that these women were walked on is obvious, but to my mind perhaps it’s time we moved their names to the walls or tables, so that we could see them without looking down.

         Women’s history is a history of injustice, writ large and small. And the worst offenders are sometimes ourselves – there is no right way to be a feminist or a woman, and yet it seems that the messages we hear are all about searching for that right way while shaming and stigmatizing the non-conformers.