February 12, 2018

"So when a male art instructor asked London-based artist Alex Bertulis-Fernandes to 'dial down the feminism,'in her work, she took some time for self-reflection..."

... and came back with this:

99 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Art".

TrespassersW said...

What are the odds that she made up the comment by the "male art instructor?"

TrespassersW said...

And any guesses as to how much actual "self-reflection" she engaged in? 30 seconds? A minute?

bleh said...

Well, based on that image I think she should dial it down a bit. Maybe move it to 12 o'clock.

buwaya said...

"Dehumanization" - Hysteria.

Why can't art be about beauty?
I don't see why a woman artist can't be extremely feminine and still be into creating beauty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e_Le_Brun

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/LadyHamilton.jpg

Nothing dehumanized in any of that I think.

traditionalguy said...

OK. She is a fighter woman in search of an enemy to fight with her art.

Birkel said...

Those are the two options?

As a solid Leftist Collectivist, I see this "artist" has learned well the art of burning strawpeople.

Idiot.

Wilbur said...

She needs to dial it up to 11.

Earnest Prole said...

Our feminism goes to eleven.

madAsHell said...

What do you bet the dial can't be turned off "Raging Feminist"?

William said...

I hope the teacher loses his job. Ideally that teacher's wife should leave him. If she doesn't, she's complicit. I do, however, think the teacher should be given supervised visitation rights with his children, it's possible to go too far with the feminism.

Earnest Prole said...

That's one louder, isn't it?

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Where is the normal human being setting?

buwaya said...

Madame Lebrun and Daughter - self portrait

A happy woman and a great talent.

fivewheels said...

Remember, it's "dehumanizing" to make any effort to be less belligerently obnoxious.

Gabriel said...

@Earnest Prole:Our feminism goes to eleven.

Why don't you have it go to ten, but just have ten be louder?

Matt Sablan said...

Too lazy to click. Can we see what art was being criticized? Some political art is over the top and dialing it back may be a good idea.

Honestly, I think this is a good response. It is political. The art is modern and stark. It gets across the message clearly. The teacher's comment helped. Even if he may have been a dick about it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Her feminism goes to eleven.

Fernandinande said...

"There isn’t an on-off switch when it comes to actively supporting the fight or equality. For the battle to be truly won, people must stand against discrimination at every turn."

LOL, what a load.

Bitch be givin' "Fernand*" a bad name.

Heartless Aztec said...

All it lacks is Nigel's "11" on the dial.

Jupiter said...

I kind of like the weird little raised circle around the knob.

rcocean said...

Yeah, Feminist Art.

Yeeeaaah.

Bay Area Guy said...

Hah - you bastards beat me to it!

Take it to 11, Baby!!!

(It'd be nice if we had a picture of this shrinking little violet. What are the odds she's hot?)

rcocean said...

I would never tell a female artist to "Dial Down her feminism"

I'd just call her art crap.

Jupiter said...

Roy Jacobsen said...
"And any guesses as to how much actual "self-reflection" she engaged in? 30 seconds? A minute?"

“I kept thinking, ‘Is my art too feminist?’” Bertulis-Fernandes told Newsweek. But after a few days of contemplation, the question evolved to, “What makes art too feminist?”

langford peel said...

This just nonsense.

Feminists are great artists.

Bullshit artists.

Everything they say and do is just bullshit.

They should learn to iron and make sandwiches or they will be resigned to a lonely life with three or four cats who will consume their rotting flesh when they die alone and loveless.

Happy Valentines Day!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Funny. To me the opposite of feminist seems like it would be humanist.

mockturtle said...

Women have never been freer to pursue their goals. They are as free as men in that pursuit. She is a pathetic case of identity politics spoiling every facet of our culture. Bad enough that her shallow cause is noticed but worse that it becomes a cause célèbre.

Robert Cook said...

It's quite funny!

Jupiter said...

"Feminism is relevant and important to everyone, but men are much more likely to think, 'I can afford not to engage.'"

Maybe she could design a companion piece. Something failing to engage ...

Paul Zrimsek said...

Ordinarily you'd use a knob like that with a potentiometer or some other sort of continuously variable control, not a two-position toggle switch.

MadisonMan said...

'art an' is an interesting tag. But I don't know what it means. Could you please dial back the stumping tags? Thanks in advance.

Paul Zrimsek said...

It's like, how much more black-and-white can she be? And the answer is none, none more black-and-white.

buwaya said...

" the opposite of feminist "

Is feminine.

langford peel said...

Feminism is like krytonite.

To your erection.

Robert Cook said...

"Why can't art be about beauty?"

It can be about beauty, as that is among the aspects of human existence, but art should not be only decoration.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

God I am so sick of these people and their "raging" egotism... Fucking get over yourself already...

MadisonMan said...

From the Article:

(artist) credits her instructor for fostering an environment where she could freely express her views. “I never felt like I’d be penalized. At the end of the day, he’ll express his opinion, I’ll express mine. It’s a dialogue.”

He sounds like a good instructor, then.

Doug said...

"Look at ME! I am a VICTIM!"

langford peel said...

Maybe Vox Day can create a feminist supervillain for his new Alt-Hero comicbook called "Femi-Nazi" with a cleavage baring outfit with lots of black leather and a whip.

Think of the possibilities.

DKWalser said...

How does she feel about being complicit in the dehumanization of half the population? That's the new feminism.

Fernandinande said...

Roy Jacobsen said...
What are the odds that she made up the comment by the "male art instructor?"


That naughty, naughty man!

"At the moment I'm going viral, which is nice.
...
I like to create Miss Piggy videos inspired by Taylor Swift, NHS propaganda posters, and write about How I Ate Nothing But Cake and Almost Doubled My Weight.

There's a Getty image of me on the tube in my underwear."

Fernandinande said...

"Raging feminist" says "me on the tube in my underwear."

That's like all edgy 'n' shit. Underwear!

tcrosse said...

And yet Bertulis-Fernandes hyphen is still intact.

buwaya said...

" but art should not be only decoration."

?

Why not?

This is decoration, nothing but -

Cordoba

Susan said...

I personally think that a dial like this on every feminist would save a lot if time.

"Oh I see your dial is turned to 11. Good day, Ms."

langford peel said...

You don't need a dial to tell she is a feminist.

You can tell by the mattress she is carrying.

Plus the fact that she didn't shave her pits.

mezzrow said...

"so what you're saying is I'm a knob, then..." - instructor responds with a NoKor sideeye.

Kate said...

I like it. The institutional, 60s-machine/stereo vibe is funny. I don't know if she has a self-deprecating sense of humor, but that's how I read the piece. Clever and successful work.

langford peel said...

This dizzy broad thinks that a dial can let someone tell how much of a feminist she is when everyone knows how to identify a real feminist.

The general rule of thumb is that the uglier a woman is the more she identifies as a feminist.

The Brits call it Slag-dar sort of like Gaydar for wormy birds.

FIDO said...

Never touch a feminists knobs. They resent it.

Jim at said...

Dial it down all you want.

Not only am I not listening no matter what the sound level? I'm tuned into a different station.

Ann Althouse said...

Made me think of Hillary's "reset" button.

langford peel said...

I bet Chuck would love her.

He can twist the dial instead of her titty.

I just don't know if that would give him the same thrill.

Rigelsen said...

“Self-reflection”

Is that what she calls it?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

*Nothing in between*

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

@Mockturtle

Women have never been freer to pursue their goals. They are as free as men in that pursuit. She is a pathetic case of identity politics spoiling every facet of our culture. Bad enough that her shallow cause is noticed but worse that it becomes a cause célèbre.

Worth a nice hearty bold.

Sebastian said...

This must be the kind of stuff they discuss in Women's Studies classes, as they "study women."

Static Ping said...

It is always interesting when art is produced from religion.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Stephen Pinker described PC - which feminism is basically a cousin of - as the devolution of a possibly once-legitimate movement that has entered its debauched phase. The French Revolution was necessary and initially wonderful, but became very debauched. Same with women's rights and its decades-long radical feminist aftermath. Feminism is an extended, months-long depressive period of crying, wailing and mourning that bemoans the loss of traditional/Victorian female privileges and emotional entitlements that it was necessary to overthrow in any society interested in advancing to a true state of gender equality.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Feminism is what women can go to when they don't have anything left to cry (and yell and scream) about.

MikeR said...

It's not either/or. Raging feminists are dehumanized.

Howard said...

What a POS, she needed to put the dial on full-blown PMS on Steroids female rage that is located one click past 11.

Look into her eyes that's the Thousand Miles of Crazy stare.

Howard said...

I thought women operated digitally via buttons. Anal Log is for the gay man.

Oso Negro said...

She really stuck it to The Man! It’s pretty much raging feminist or pleasure slave of Gor for the modern woman. Not much in between I’m afraid.

ccscientist said...

I suppose women making up 60% of college students is "dehumanizing". FFS American women have it so good compared to anywhere in the world and any time in history.

These women are so convinced that doing anything for a man is dehumanizing. Like if he does all the yard work and takes care of the cars and fixes stuff and works 60 hours/week, it is still dehumanizing to make him dinner? A relationship involves taking care of each other, doing things for each other, putting the other person first. If you are constantly on guard against "being dehumanized"--whatever that means-- you cannot have a relationship. It just isn't possible.

Laura said...

"Bertulis-Fernandes hopes to continue the dialogue by turning 'Dial Down the Feminism' into an art installation where people can physically turn the knob."

Or leave it inflexible, just like the "dialogue."

Henry said...

That's it?

Henry said...

If you can't turn the dial, it's not art.

Mr. Majestyk said...

It would have been funny if she had misspelled it "raging" as "ragging.". (snicker)

Quaestor said...

...she took some time for self-reflection

Alex [insert silly compound name here] self-reflected for a few consecutive microseconds or gave it an over-night think. Judging by the obviousness of the metaphor I estimate she invested many sleepless hours...

and her head still hurts.

Marcus said...

She seems, with her art, to be a one-note Johnny.

tim in vermont said...

I am sure that if you tapped her knee with one of those rubber mallets, and timed the kick, you would get a number approximating her “self reflection.”

But whatever. As long as I am not paying for the shit she produces, she can produce all she can sell.I am sure that she can convince many people that anything less that raging feminism is subhuman to some degree.

roesch/voltaire said...

Clever retort and as conceptual art not too bad--any art school is tough to navigate in terms of meeting the expectations and philosophy of the instructors while trying to dial into your own vision.

tim in vermont said...

“clever retort”

It wouldn’t even be a clever blog comment. There are funnier memes produced in quantity daily. But that’s not the point, is it? The most important thing is to accept the views of the instructor if the instructor is a flaming leftist, of course, and to reject it in all other cases.

Mr. Groovington said...

Fail. The kerning is terrible.

LA_Bob said...

From her website http://www.alexbertulisfernandes.com/

"There's a Getty image of me on the tube in my underwear.

I’m most impressive in person."


I think her response was clever and cute. She appears to be a capable artist who is a little too politically rough around the edges. At least she doesn't seem like an angry feminist. But, she is only 23, and perhaps time and maturity will enhance her artistic vision.

Ken B said...

Imagine if you had to speak Italian to even know what a Michelangelo painting was about?

LA_Bob said...

I also clicked on her youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDdfFlwVoKDiw6phK_n1s1w). It said,

"This channel doesn't have any content".

Seems appropriate.

Matt said...

The piece implies that there is in fact a happy middle between the two poles that she could in fact position the dial to by "dialing it down".

Lucien said...

About the level of insight I’d expect from a typical 23 year old. Not everyone can be Keats.

She should go make me a sammich.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

It goes to 11.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Wait, that's not analog. It's digital.

n.n said...

"the opposite of feminist"... Is feminine.

Yes, it is a form of chauvinism centered on self, that is only incidentally related to the underlying gender of the individual. The feminine gender is not a punishment. It is equal in rights and complementary in nature to the masculine gender. We are women and men, girls and boys, humans, persons, from conception to a natural or elective death.

FIDO said...

It is very simple: these days, anything a Feminist wants (including Ms. Althouse) I will immediately donate money, time or votes to the exact other side.

Feminism has shown no ability to be satisfied. No ability to be appreciative for their Bountiful Manifest gains. They have shown little to no love to the male gender and even those women who do rarely take those vilifying men to the woodshed.

So they are not trustworthy. I would suggest anyone else who find their stances illogical, against the rule of law, or socially destructive to do the exact same thing.

Bob Loblaw said...

What do you bet the dial can't be turned off "Raging Feminist"?

It's like those radios in North Korea that are literally glued to the government station.

stevew said...

"Raging Feminist" aka, "11".

-sw

stevew said...

Prediction: this is the most inspired and original work of art she will ever produce.

-sw

walter said...

"That's not funny."

Jenster said...

maybe not so original.. perhaps the inspiration of..

http://www.arts-stew.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Man-Woman-Control-Panel.jpg

JAORE said...

Funny. Not "bust a gut" funny, but funny.

From the files of: Lighten Up Francis.

Rocketeer said...

[A]ny art school is tough to navigate in terms of meeting the expectations and philosophy of the instructors while trying to dial into your own vision.

Good art schools teach craft. Good art students seek to learn craft.

"Dial into your own vision" during your off hours.

Saint Croix said...

This feminism goes to 11!

JackOfClubs said...

The problem with this work isn't too much feminism but too little imagination. I agree with the two endpoints but there are an infinite number of possibilities between them. An artist ought to have seized the opportunity to explore more options than a simple binary choice. I give her credit for using a dial rather than a toggle switch, but that really comes from the "male art instructor" who clearly understands that the expression "dial it back" doesn't mean "turn it off". She had an opportunity to display female strength as exciting and engaging, but she chose bland, mechanical and trite. Too bad.

glacial erratic said...

Future cat lady.

veni vidi vici said...

I thought it was clever and amusing.

On her site, most of the best work is "Ads that will never run", which include a particularly clever ad for florists. If she pitched that around the US, she'd easily find a buyer or three that'd run with it. Perhaps stateside sensibilities towards death and politesse are a bit less rigid, though.

Known Unknown said...

Is this feminist work?

Oh, I get it. Black guys are stereotypically well endowed.

Known Unknown said...

I looked at the rest of her site. She's not too talented.

Known Unknown said...

"On her site, most of the best work is "Ads that will never run", which include a particularly clever ad for florists. If she pitched that around the US, she'd easily find a buyer or three that'd run with it. Perhaps stateside sensibilities towards death and politesse are a bit less rigid, though."

That ad has been done before.