Women in the Picture: What Culture Does with Female Bodies

Art historian Catherine McCormack challenges how culture teaches us to see and value women, their bodies, and their lives.Venus, maiden, wife, mother, monsterwomen have been bound so long by these restrictive roles, codified by patriarchal culture, that we scarcely see them. Catherine McCormack illuminates the assumptions behind these stereotypes whether writ large or subtly hidden. She ranges through Western artthink Titian, Botticelli, and Millaisand the image-saturated world of fashion photographs, advertisements, and social media, and boldly counters these depictions by turning to the work of women artists like Morisot, Ringgold, Lacy, and Walker, who offer alternative images for exploring womens identity, sexuality, race, and power in more complex ways.