Camille Claudel Part I

In our last three films (including the first half of "Camille Claudel,") we've seen artistic creation constructed in terms of gender. "Belly of an Architect" inverts (subverts?) traditional ideas of gender, "Artemisia" plays into them, and we haven't decided yet about "Camille Claudel" (although we did observe that Claudel's story is very much also Rodin's). What can the two latest readings contribute to your thinking about how gender is linked with art in these movies? Are women associated with nature and men with culture? (Ortner) Are compulsive looking and touching, and eroticism identified with female art-making? (Felleman) Due by the end of the day Tuesday, Nov. 2.

The portrayal of women artists in the media and in film is always seen as a secondary role to men. Women artist stereotypes are linked to the femme fatale, sex kitten or the inspiration behind their significant other’s artwork. The women artist feed into the men’s creativity while also giving up their careers as an artist, for the success of their counterparts. Whatever the role, television, film and popular culture are full of images of women depicted as sexual objects of desire.
Although some strides have been taken to change the way that women are portrayed in the media and film, female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media that we consume everyday. In both Artemisia and what we have seen in Camille Claudel as well, provides a snapshot of the objectification and eroticization of female artists by the media. In both movies, the directors attempted to explore the ways in which media both limits and empowers the representation of the female artist.
The Ortner article, Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?, outlines different ways in which men link to culture and females associate with nature. Ortner argues that biological and genetic determinism where something is genetically inherent in the male species that makes them the dominate sex by nature. Women, on the other hand, are not naturally subordinate maximizing the nature of internal pleasures such as maternity, as the most natural and satisfying experience in life. Since it is always culture’s goals to subsume and rise above nature, and if we are paralleling culture to men and nature to women, than it is natural for men to subordinate women as inferior to men.
Ortner argues that there are three ways in which the woman links with the idea of nature: “(1) woman’s body and its functions, more involved more of the time with ‘species life,’ seem to place her closer to nature, in contrast to man’s physiology, which frees him more completely to take up the projects of culture; (2) woman’s body and its functions place her in social roles that in turn are considered to be at a lower order of the cultural process than man’s; and (3) woman’s traditional social roles, imposed because of her body and its functions, in turn give her a different psychic structure, which, like her physiological nature and her social roles, is seen as being closer to nature” (Ortner 73-74). The female is seen as the prey for the dominate male speices, thus linking the female to nature and the nature of the hunt. Most of the women’s primary functions serve for nature rather than her own personal self, such as breast milk for babies, and sex to have a baby: the nature of a mother. All of her resources and energies are focued on the family and daily tasks rather than focusing on herself, much like female animals in nature. The nature of women, thus makes them less significant and of lower status than men who are linked to culture.
Felleman, on the other hand, argues that women are compulsive, looking and touching, and eroticism identifies with their artwork. Felleman says about film: “art is shown as the progenty of sexual passion in these films” (Felleman 28). We can refrence and recall this in both the first part of Camille Claudel and Artemisia. The directors both portray the female artists as gaining their intellectual and artistic genius from their relationships with their much older tutors/lovers. Although the women artists were examining a broader and more ‘grown up’ image, such as the body, I do not feel that women should be portrayed as eroticizing their artwork because they were going out on a limb and doing what the men did of this era. By examining the human form, the women artists were able to rise to the level of the men even if it was looked down upon at this time.