Name: Emmanuel Hernandez

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FACILITATION SHEET

Full APA Citation for Author(s), Title, Date, Source, Publication Company:

Girls, G. (1998). Introduction. In The Guerrilla girls bedside companion to the history of western
art (pp. 6-9). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin books.

Girls, G. (1998). Classi babes. In The Guerrilla girls bedside companion to the history of western
art (pp. 10-17). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin books.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 Sentences):

Girls (1998) illustrates the history of injustice experienced by women and female artists.
The introduction serves as a type of pre-chapter, it’s here where the book first makes it’s case
for female artists and how the mass information that could’ve been gained throughout history
is lost due to the male egocentric society throughout history“…Why haven’t there been more
great women artists throughout western history? The guerrilla girls want to restate the
question: Why haven’t more women been considered great artists throughout western
history?”(, p.7). The idea that one’s gender determines the skill level in daily activities is
extremely outdated, yet for as obviously redundant as it is, this is still a remaining issue in many
parts of the world. Chapter one includes more information on the many injustices that took
place towards female artists who lived in ancient Greece, as well as a few rare moments where
female artists are documented.

Short Overview (Including at least 2-3 important quotes from the reading):
In the first chapter, Classi babes, Grls opens us to the male focused society of ancient
Greece “…Only men could be citizens; only citizens could vote or own estates, property, or
livestock” (Girls,1998,p.11). We are then given a set of laws and household rules women had to
follow, basically telling us that as a women you were as good as a slave, your duty was to a man
in some shape or form otherwise you couldn’t afford the basic necessities to live.

There is also the matter of art surviving from the time period. As sad as it is, much of
the art that was made in ancient Greece has been destroyed due to religious wars, purges, or
from the decay of time, because of this it’s incredibly difficult to find information on female
artists who lived during the period, if they were even mentioned that is. As Girls (1998) notes:

As hard as it is to find art by women from ancient times, it’s even harder to find
historians who appreciate the woman artists. When they do give a woman praise, they speak of
her as if she were an aberration of her sex because of her talent. ((p.15)

Critical Response: Reflections and/or relevance to personal art educational experiences/or

teaching experience (Do you agree/disagree with the reading? Why? How does it relate to
your own experiences in the classroom as a student/teacher?)

I feel the Girls (1998) reading provides an informative description of the mistreatment and
inequality given to female artists throughout history. It is sad to think that our society still holds
 Name: Emmanuel Hernandez
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some of these values and it seems like not enough effort has been put in to rectifying the
situation. I feel the reading also gives an insight on the mentality of society during the era, in
some cases I thought to myself “how could anyone have thought this was okay?”. Near the end
I was blown away by the fact that women, or rather the parts of women were considered
ingredients for “natural remedies”, The thought of another human analyzing me for my parts is
sick and quite disturbing. Although I only read the introduction and Chapter one, I am very
interested in the book as a whole and will in fact make it an effort to read the rest of it.