Judith Williamson is a famous feminist writer whose article Images of ‘Woman’ is heavily cited in the discussion of Cindy Sherman’s work in relation to feminism. As I am not used to reading this kind of academic paper it has taken me some time to grasp, but from what I can understand from the article, Williamson is mostly in favour of Cindy Sherman’s artistic decisions. The article raises some really interesting points including the idea that Sherman’s work is important because it challenges us as the viewer and the way we look at women. She talks about the idea of ‘image’ and ‘identity’ , giving an example she explains “as if the sexy black dress made you be a femme-fetale” she explains that women experience this all the time, the idea that the way a woman looks/dresses alters the type of woman people expect them to be.
Later in the article she explains how you recognise the “styles”, the “film-stars” in the ‘Untitled Film Stills’ & ‘Centrefolds’ from movies and TV shows we have seen before, so as soon as you recognise the character you are reading the image in a certain way .
There are lots of other really interesting points raised in this article which I will revisit when forming my arguments in the planning process of my essay. But reading this has already helped me start to form a structure in my head of how I might address an essay question about Cindy Sherman’s work and whether it was undermining the feminist cause.
Critical Research // 