Before this class, I never looked at what sex a painter was when I looked at his or her paintings. I just looked at all paintings equally, to see which ones I liked and which ones I didn't like. I thought that there were more male artists than female artists. I never knew that under the surface there was so much sexism in art. But now I know that female artists were and are still being repressed. Why is it so hard for women to get credit for their art? Why do people just assume that because the artist is a woman, her art is not as good as her male colleagues?
             When Judy Chicago opened her monumental piece of art, The Dinner Party, to the public in 1978 at the San Francisco Museum, there were many different opinions about her "art." It was a beautiful work of art, a large triangular table, stretching 48 feet on each side and set on a raised platform. It was covered with 2,3000 hand-cast tiles, on which are written the names of 999 significant women in history. The triangle was selected as the earliest symbol of female power and the sign of the goddess. Each side of the equilateral triangle holds thirteen place settings. The thirty-nine women selected for this honor range from early goddess's, noted feminists of the early fifteenth century through the present, to the diverse achievements of women in the twentieth century. Each of the place settings consists of a porcelain plate designed by Chicago to reflect the special achievements and experiences of these historic figures. The designs of all the plates are based on the central, vaginal imagery so critical to Chicago's creative sensitivity to art and beauty. I think that using the vaginal imagery on every plate was a very wonderful and unique idea. This work of art was all about women and the one thing that women have that men don't is a vagina. No man can ever take that from any woman. It unites all women together. It is how the Doctor separates the males from the...