Post 1: Introduction
Hello everyone! My name is Caitlin Feeley, but I am also known as Clay.
I am currently in my senior year and my last semester at NJCU as an illustration major. Outside of school, I have a job as a painting instructor, every weekend at the paint and sip place, "The Drip" in Jersey City. This job has made me meet awesome people outside of New Jersey, and it's been wonderful. One of the main hobbies I have and what I am known for is tarot cards. I've been doing them for about seven years, and it's been great for giving myself and others guidance.
I have been thinking about this question... I don't know if I can call myself an activist, but I partake in parts of activism. I do try to be as informed as I can, not only in the current political climate but also historically, to decolonize the history I know and share it with my own folks. I will also share current situations with friends and have a discussion about them. Updating your community is important.
Art I once made: "7 of swords." 2024.
Activit Artist: Dana Terance
Part 2: Readings
Understanding Patriarchy by Bell Hooks:
"When I responded with rage at being denied a toy, I was taught as a girl in a patriarchal household that rage was not an appropriate feminine feeling, that it should not only not be expressed but be eradicated. When my brother responded with rage at being denied a toy, he was taught as a boy in a patriarchal household that his ability to express rage was good but that he had to learn the best setting to unleash his hostility" (page 2).
This quote is an example of patriarchy and especially how early it starts in children's lives, often pushed down by parents unintentionally, because to them this is the "Normal" response. That bland idea that girls are not allowed to express emotion and should stay quiet, while boys are allowed to express their emotions, pushing the idea that boys can be heard, while girls are not allowed to.
"Instead of wondering why men resist women’s struggle for a freer and healthier life, I began to wonder why men refrain from engaging in their own struggle." (page 5).
Men are often the first to dismiss inequality in women's lives, their voices, and often associate feminism or womanism with misandry, when it's not. Not only that, but they act as if they won't benefit from feminism, and act like they benefit from Patriarchy, when... they dont. You're held to a high standard, to be the "man" and exhibit toxic masculine traits that were taught to you, and never benefited you, and there are many men who have not actually achieved this idea of "man" that the patriarchal system upholds...so, why dont they confront it?
"What Memes Owe to Art History" by Alice Bucknell
"Memes are essentially 100 years of text art boiled down into your feed,” said professor Darren Wershler, research chair at Concordia University, who argues that memes are a type of “everyday Conceptualism" (Paragraph 2).
This is an interesting way of seeing it, as memes also are a way of sending a message, maybe words over an image or art, but it's a collective message, a collective consciousness, even if the situation or joke at hand is downplayed; it's an art form itself.
"Memes are Our Generation's Protest," by Sage Lazzaro
"The ability for the meme to empower and push back can be really powerful. Theyre deifietnly sites of resistance of perspections of abuse of power. They spread so quickly and evolve and transform, and it's hard to shut them down in a way that other forms of communicative protest can be silenced. (Paragraph 2).
Memes are used as an act of voicing against the government, curriculum systems, shitty sitiations and abuse of power. As mentioned before its a collective message, either mocking the situation or the target, but overall, it's a fast-movingmessage that gets collective acknowledgment. It's an act of resistance, as most art is.
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