First of all, I would like to do a shout-out to this extremely delicious breakfast that I made this morning. I am not what you would call a ‘breakfast person’ so this picture is here to show you that I can occasionally get my act together in the morning, but only about 4 times a year.

Also- my prized Uff da! mug. That mug is so cool it deserves it’s own show.

I know it’s not exactly coincidental (given the current cultural and political climate) but I have been exposed to a higher than normal dose of feminist related content in the past week. I find this pretty energizing.

Watching and becoming infatuated with the television show ‘I Love Dick’ has been the common thread.  First of all- the name *italian-chef-kiss* 

The show was created by Jill Soloway who also created the show ‘Transparent’ which among its many shining and beautiful laurels has also got the best opening theme sequence that I have ever probably not cried during:

More about ‘I Love Dick’ later.

On Wednesday, Janneke invited a bunch of us out to Streetcar Crowsnestto see What a Young Wife Ought to know. In short, it tells a story about a time when women did not have access to birth control without the risk of self harm or death. As I am sure you can imagine, it was a quite harrowing hour and a half. Immediately after the show I went to the closest Shoppers Drugmart and hugged a box of condoms. Just kidding. Lauren drove us home. Fun fact: I got to see the top left corner of Margaret Atwood’s head.

In my pursuit to interact with more art, I went to a lecture at the AGO called Creativity and Intimate Partnership: Artist Couples. Initially, I was drawn to it because it highlighted one of my favourite artists: Robert Rauschenberg. I dream of one day owning this limited edition Talking Heads record ‘Speaking in Tongues’ designed by Rauschenberg (actually it’s several records layered on top of one another). Isn’t it pretty?

The first thing I learned at the lecture was that Rauschenberg was gay. I know it’s not particularly progressive of me to bring this up, but I definitely did a google search right at the top of the lecture when they said his partner’s name was Jasper Johns. I may have a small crush on the late Rauschenberg due to the fact that I think he is somewhat synonymous with Bruce Springsteen (mmmm…Springsteen): subversive and political, overall masculine and raw, intellectual. Mainstream.

But I digress. It was a particularly interesting lecture to see with the backdrop of ‘I Love Dick’ which centres around an artist couple- where they find inspiration, how they edit each other, how they succeed as artists and the reaction they receive to their work in relation to their respective genders. In the lecture, it was mentioned that the female artists (Gabriele Münter, Sophie Taeuber) felt they were not able to be as expressive in their work as their respective partners. This stemmed from the belief that emotions and feelings were seen to be easily accessed by women (and then in contrast, not easily accessed by men who were praised for creating free-flowing expressionist work). Instead the women felt a certain pressure to be more calculated and exact in their work for fear of not being taken seriously as artists.

So this brings me to ‘I Love Dick’.

It’s not my goal to be a television blogger, but for the sake of context:

The show is about a couple, a failed female filmmaker: Chris and her husband Sylvere. They have just relocated to a small town (Marfa) in Texas for a fellowship that Sylvere has taken under the sponsorship of the title character: Dick (Kevin Bacon). At the start of the show, Dick represents the ultimate archetypal man. He is literally a cowboy. He is stoic and always in control of his emotions. His art reflects this. He comes from wealth and privilege and as a result, he has the freedom to create monolithic pieces that cost millions of dollars. He is revered as a world class artist and has a powerful, yet cool presence in Marfa. Chris immediately develops a deep and unbridled infatuation with Dick as a result of his rejection of her as an artist. This triggers her creativity in the form of her sexuality. She begins writing him erotic love letters, acting out her fantasies with her husband, eventually roping Dick into her reckless conquest. First privately and then publicly.

Uff, there. Context.

What I find so brilliant about this show is the role reversal of men and women in the context of art/inspiration/exploitation. It is no secret that we have been inundated with pieces that explore the male gaze (see: Guerrilla Girls), but in ‘I Love Dick’ we are forced to uncomfortably watch the reverse. The female gaze. It ain’t pretty. The final hurricane that Chris inflicts on the town of Marfa and on Dick leads us to a booze filled conversation between Sylvere and Dick. In this conversation Sylvere quite astutely says to Dick:  “It’s not so fun being a muse, is it?” In other words, it’s not fun being objectified, exploited and treated like a 2-dimensional accessory to someone else’s narrative.

Episode 5: A Short History Of Weird Girls – delves into this a bit further, exploring how sex and gender have influenced and shaped the lives of four women. It shows us that despite the females’ intelligence, conviction and competence, they are constantly being muted and treated as secondary or as naive or as an object to be picked up and played with when desired. Of course it also shows us (with fuzzy glowing orbs of light illuminated over their bodies) that they too have intense desires. The satisfaction in watching ‘I Love Dick’ comes in their metaphorical orgasmic release as they live out these desires, one by one.

There are so many subliminal cues in this show, that the show itself can easily be watched several times over. Among the few that I caught, I most enjoyed when Dick puts on a record for Chris, The New York Dolls. [Truth talk: I had pretty much psychically put on my New York Dolls t-shirt only moments before this scene. I nearly missed the context entirely. I spent most of it sitting on my bed contemplating buying a lottery ticket.]

The song he plays is ‘Lonely Planet Boy’ which I believe is his subconscious way of transmitting to Chris that he is not the hyper-masculine secure man she has projected onto him. Beneath the persona he is something far more nuanced and vulnerable, and that he ultimately wants her to see him on this deeper level.

And then it smacks me in the head that, of course! The New York Dolls! The first gender-bending, dress wearing band of the New York punk scene in the 70s. Fuck, it’s so good.

I could probably go on for much longer about ‘I Love Dick’ but I sense that this is more interesting if you have actually seen the show. Please go watch it so we can have a lengthy conversation about it over beer and hot wings.

P.S: Happy Birthday Gloria Steinem

Here is my 30 minute playlist for the week: