Women' s Stud ies in Communica tion Volume 23, Number 2, Sprin g 2000

The Guerrilla Girls' Comic Politic s of Subversion

Anne Teresa Demo

T his essay explores the visual rhetoric of the Guerrilla Girls, a grou p of fem inist art
activists based in New York. Kenneth Burke's related concepts of the co mic frame and
perspec tive by incongruit y provide a particularly fitting conceptual founda tion for
exam ining these spec ific strategies and the Guerrilla Girls' rhetori c in ge neral. The
analysis focuses on three rhetorical strate gies used by the group: ( I) mimicry; (2) an
inventi ve re-vision of history ; and (3) strategic juxtaposition. By dem ons tratin g the
means by which strateg ies of incongruit y operate visually, this essay illustrates how
visual rhetoric function s as both a site and resource of fem inist resistance .

THE ADVA NTAG ES OF BEING A WOMA N A RTIST

Worki ng without the pressure of succe ss.
Not having to be in show s with men.
Having an esca pe from the art world in your 4 free- lance jobs.
Knowing your career might pick up after you'r e eighty.
Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled
femin ine.
Not being stuck in a ten ured teaching positi on.
See ing your ideas live on in the work of others .
Having the opportunity to choose between career and mother hood . . . .
Ge tting your picture in art magazi nes wearing a gorill a suit.

The preceding excerpt, taken from a 1988 poster plastered throughout the
streets of lower Manhattan , satirically encouraged passers-by to consider
the so-called "sunny side" of institutionalized sex ism (Guerrilla Girls,
1995, p. 53). Created by the Guerrilla Girls- a feminist collective of
women artists and art world professionals-this sardonic chronicle of art
world doubl e standards has been translated into more than eight languages
and immortalized in femini st literature and pop-culture postcards. The
poster 's litany of contradictions illustrates both the spectrum of sexism that
women artists face and a principal strategy of the Guerrilla Girls' rhetoric:
perspective by incongruity.
The growing literature on Kenneth Burke and dramatic frames well
establishes the potential for perspective by incongruity to function as a

Anne Teresa Demo is an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University in Nash ville,

Tennessee . T his essay originated as part of the author 's master' s thesis com pleted at
Penn sylvania State Un iversity under the direction of Stephen H. Browne. The author is
especially grateful to Brad Vivian, Bon nie Dow, and the two anonymou s reviewe rs for
Wom en :~ Studies in Communication.
134 Women 's Studie s in Commun icatio n

discursive too l for enacting soc ial change (Allen & Faigley, 1995; Carlson,
1986, 1988, 1992; Chr istiansen & Hanson, 1996; Dow, 1994; Powell,
1995). According to Burke, perspecti ve by incongruit y works by "a
constant j uxtapos ing of incongruous words, attac hing to some name a
qualify ing epithet which had heretofore go ne with a different order of
names" (Burke, 1954, p. 90). The use of term s, images or ideologies that
are inco ngruo us reorders--even remoralizes- a situation or orien tatio n in
a process akin to conscio usness-raisi ng (Dow, 1994). This essay is
indebted to much of the literature on dramatic frames and seeks to further
contribute to the study of marginalized (speci fically fem inist) disco urse by
examining how strategies of incongru ity engender a comic politics of
subversion. My analysis focuses on three strategies found in the rhetoric of
the Guerrilla Girls: (I) mimicry, (2) an inventive re-vision of history, and
(3) strateg ic juxtaposition. I argue that the orga nizing logic for these
strategies in particular, and Guerrilla Gi rls' rhetoric in genera l, is the
technique that Burke labels perspecti ve by incongrui ty. I foregro und
strategies of incongruit y because of their potential to both denaturalize and
restructure a particular context, ideology, or sedimented meaning through
" comparison, re-classification, and re-naming" (Dow, 1994, p. 229) . Eve n
though perspective by incongruit y structures the Gue rrilla Girls' rhetoric,
its more genera l function is to crea te a co mic politics of subversion and is,
therefo re, close ly linked to Burke's discussion of the co mic frame. The
Guerrilla Girl s' rhetoric, then, demonstrates how plann ed incongru ity not
only pokes fun at the failures of the socia l structure but also offers a co mic
corrective to such failings.
Many critics have recognized the symbiotic relationship between
perspective by incongruity and the co mic frame in Burke's work (Chris-
tiansen & Hanson, 1996; Dow, 1994; Gusfield , 1986). Described as a frame
of acce ptance, the co mic frame hinges on the ambivalence engendered by
incong ruities. The comic frame privileges audiences by provid ing a unique
vantage point from which to see the inacc uracies of a situatio n--creating
what Burke labels " maximum consciousness" (1937/1984, p. 171).
Likening the process to a play, Burke exp lains , " The audience, from its
vantage point, sees the operation of errors that the charac ters of the play
cannot see ; thus seeing from two angles at once, it is chastened by dramatic
irony" (1954, p. 4 1). For Burke, the comic frame function s as a middle
ground: " It is neither wholly euphemistic, nor wholly debunk ing-hence it
prov ides the charitable attitude toward people that is requ ired for purposes
of persuasion and cooperation" (1937/1984, p. 166). As William Rueckert
 Anne Teresa Demo 135

maintains, the comic frame " does not believe in absolute s, in categorical
Nos" (1990, p. II ). This outlook is key to the Guerrilla Girls' rhetorical
approac h, as one member explained it in a 1991 interview: " Making
demands are the tactic s of the 70s and let' s face it, they didn 't really work
very well. So we decided to try another way: humor, irony, intimidation,
and poking fun" (Lederer, 1991, n. p.). The machinery of perspecti ve by
incongruit y and the comic frame, then, engenders a form of social criticism
that seeks to correct the inadequacies of the present social order throu gh
demystification rather than revoluti on (Burke, 1937/1984, p. 167).
T he line of inquiry pursued throu ghout my analysis responds to recent
calls for increased critical attention to nontradition al form s of feminist
rhetoric (Carlson, 1992; Dow, 1997) and for critiqu es engag ing the activist
potent ial of specific comic strategies (Carlson, 1988; Christiansen &
Hanson, 1996). Despite the Guerrill a Girls' visibilit y and longevity, they
have received limited interdisciplinary attention (Loughery, 1987; Schor,
1990; Withers, 1988). This academic silence stands in stark contrast to the
group's stature as a model for grassroots activists. Glori a Steinem eve n
cited the Guerrilla Girls as a "group that symbolized the best of feminism
in this country.. . Sma rt, radical. funny, creative, uncompromising, and (I
assume) diverse under those inspired gorilla masks, they force us to rethink
eve rything from art to zaniness" (Guerrilla Girls, 1995, back cover). In
additio n, the aesthetic style of the gro up's posters has been wide ly
recognized by their inclu sion in museum and gallery exhibitions. As a
group who communicate their message through primarily visual forms and
in unconventional public fora, the Guerrilla Girls demonstrate how comic
strategies function within a visual idiom.
This essay unfolds in four sections. I begin with a brief ove rview of
feminist art activism as it bears most directly on the Guerrill a Girls'
rhetoric , while highl ighti ng feminist antecedents and the cultural pretext
for the gro up' s formation. The seco nd section exa mines the conceptual
linkages between feminist rhetoric, perspective by incongruity, and the
comic frame . The analysis that follows features three strategie s of
incongruit y: the role of mimicry in the gro up' s perfo rmances and
formation of their public personae; the Guerrill a Girls' inventiv e approach
to the history of women artists; and strategic j uxtapositions in two
broadsi des created by the Guerilla Girls. I conclude by discussing the
potential for unconventional forms and fora of persuasion to enact social
change.
136 Wom en 's Studies in Co mm unica tion

Feminist Consciou sness Raising in the Visual Arts:

Precedents and Pretext
The history of women's exclusion and marginalization within the arts is
well documen ted (Noc hlin, 1988; Chadwick, 1990). More than twenty
years after America n women were granted suffrage, formal and informal
obstacles to art world institutions remain ed intact. The birth of the Abstract
Express ionist movement in the I950s, however, appea red to usher in a new
sensibility regarding what was considered art and who could create it.
Artists like Lee Krasner, Dorothy Dehner, Joan Mitchell, and Elaine de
Kooning (all members of the New York School of Art) began exhibiting
alongside male co ntemporar ies like Willem de Koonin g, Jackson Pollock,
and Andrew Gott leib. Even as these and other wome n artists gained some
visibility, however, their careers remained at the periph ery, tethered by an
art establishment doctrin e that "only men had the wings for art"
(Chadwick, 1990, p. 302).
The co nvergence of the modern feminist movement and art activism
opened gallery doors that had long been closed to wome n artists. In the late
I960s, the striking arm of the Women 's Liberation Organization, the
Women 's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITC H), began
masquerading as cro nes during protests ove r women' s subordinatio n. Their
demonstrations consisted primarily of theatrical eve nts such as showering
the "Sociology Department at the University of Chicago with hair cuttings
and nail cli ppings after the firing of a radical fem inist wo man professor "
(Mo rgan, 1970, p. 538). Both the gro up's appropriatio n of a " patriarchally
des ignated" archetype and tactical management of dom inant symbo ls
established a rhetorical precedent for futur e fem inist guerrilla gro ups like
the Guerilla Girls (Radner & Lanser, 1993, p. 10). Art historian Whitn ey
Chadwic k credits the pressure from grou ps like WITCH, the Guerri lla Art
Action Group (GAA G), Women Art ists in Resistance (WAR), Women
Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSA BAL), and the Art
Workers Coa lition (AWC) with inducing museum s like the Whitney to
"exhibit a larger percentage of women and minority artist s" and prod ucing
an "explosion of work that reinserted women's personal experiences into
art practices" (Chadwick, 1990, p. 32 1).
Even as such actio ns radicalized women artists, their personal empowe r-
ment did not translate into lasting systemic changes . Liz Moore , an
exhibiting artist at the first " Women's Liberation Art Group ," expressed
the exhilaration felt by many women artists durin g the period : " Women
 Anne Teresa Demo 137

artists are makin g contact with each other, coming out of their isolation.
We are beginning to acknow ledge the validity of our own and of eac h
other's work; to learn to do without male approva l, to be proud to show in
the company of each other. We are learnin g to provide each other with the
confidence to explore and develop our own vision of a new consciousness "
( 1972, p. I). Although the convergence between art activism and feminism
lingered, a backslide was palpable by the late 1970s. Henry Sayre
docum ents the dismal statistics:

By 1976, things had barely improved: only 15% of the one-

person shows in New York 's prestige galleries were devoted to
work by women. . . . A poll of ten leading New York galleries
conducted in 1975 by WiA [Women in Art] indicate d that some
represented no women, others a few, but none more than three. In
1977, in a follow-up survey, women had not gained at all. By
1979, another survey of eightee n leading New York galleries
revea led that, of all the artists these galleries represe nted, still
only 20.8% were women. (1989, pp. 86-87)

Even in the con text of this backs lide, the 1985 " Internatio nal Surve y of
Painting and Sculpture" at the Museum of Modern Art proved to be to a
breaki ng point. With an estimated two to three doze n members, the
Guerri lla Girls organized their first action in respo nse to the exhibition.
Acco rding to Guerrilla Girl Meta Fuller, " We began to ask ourse lves some
questions. Why did women and artists of color do better in the 1970s than
in the '80s? Was there a backlash in the art world? Who was respo nsible?
What could be done about it?" ( 1995, p. 13). As was the case with many
feminist agitators, their answers prompt ed a move to the streets (Chad-
wick, 1995, p. II ).
The entangled web of art world politics dictated the " means of
persuasion" used in taking to the streets (broads ides) and the Guerrilla
Girls' anonymity as they plastered their message on the construction
fences , gallery door s and kiosks of SoHo. The first battery in the poster
assault addressed the " pass the buck " ment ality of the art world
establishment by making the dismal records of ga lleries, critics, and
museum s public with posters that put names with statistics. Poster
headings varied in form from bold statements-" THESE GAL LERIES
SHOW NO MOR E TH AN I0% WOMEN ARTISTS OR NONE AT ALL"
and " THESE CRITICS DON'T WRIT E ENOUGH ABO UT WOME N
138 Women 's Studies in Co mmunica tion

ARTISTS " - to a question/an swer form at: " WHAT DO THES E ARTISTS
HAVE IN COMMON? THEY ALLOW THEIR WORK TO BE SHOWN
IN GALLERIE S TH AT SHOW NO MORE TH AN I0% WOM EN
ARTISTS OR NONE AT ALL." Most important, however, the posters
singled-out over forty-two well-know n male artis ts (e.g. Chuck Close,
Keith Harin g, Claes Oldenburg, and Julian Schn abel), along with twenty
prominent galleries (e.g . Mary Boone, Leo Cas telli, Blum Helman, and the
Dia Art Found ation), all the major New York Museums (e.g. Gugge nheim,
Metropolitan, Modern , and Whitney) and twenty-two art critics (e.g.
Hilton Kramer, Gary Indiana, Roberta Smith and Calvin Tomk ins).
By attempting to embarra ss galleries, critics, and museum s into
recog nizing the institutionalized natured of art world sexism and racism,
members put their own careers at risk. " The art world is a very small
place," Guerrilla Girl GG I explains, " we were afraid that if we blew the
whistle on some of the most powerful people, we could kiss off our ow n art
caree rs" (1995 , p. 14). Although the iden tities of the Guerri lla Girls remain
masked by a mix of bohem ian black and gorilla drag, members of the
group work in eve ry facet of the art world. According to one Guerrill a Girl,
members " may be working as secretaries at the Museu m of Modern Art,
they may be Hilton Kramer's proctologist" (Feldstein , 1994). The
member 's individual anonymity provides protection from retribution eve n
as the gro up creates a readable collective ident ity through the gor illa mask.
The ambiguity ove r membership further works to create a sense of
omnipresence in the art com munity. Even more important to the Guerri lla
Girls, however, anonymity keeps attention focused on issues rather than
individuals.
Since the gro up's inception in 1985 the Guerri lla Girls have produced
over 80 posters, graphic works, and guerilla action s targeting sexism and
racism both in and outside of the art world. Their books, Confessions ofthe
Guerrilla Girls and The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History
of Western Art , each exhausted their first-run print ings of 20,000 . Despite
the varie d forms of media used by the Guerrilla Girls, the group's rhetoric
coheres into a meaningful message because each poster, action, or book
projec t confronts sex ism and racism by revealing the incongruit y between
social idea ls and practices. The group thus couples a sarcastic wit with hard
facts . Indeed, many of the Guerrilla Girls ' early pos ters used statistics
either from the very galleries and museum s the gro up was targetin g or
established sources such as the Art in America Annual. This approac h seeks
 Anne Teresa Demo 139

to embarrass and intimidate-but not overturn-the current social order

throu gh a process that I label femini st " atom-cracking."

Femini st " Atom-Cracking" : Perspecti ve by Incongruity

and the Comic Frame
In Attitudes Toward History, Kenneth Burke equates perspective by
incongruity with " verbal 'atom crackin g"'(l937/1984, p. 308 ; also see
Burke, 1954, pp. 90, 11 9). The metapho r suggests the highl y charged
nature of the symbolic alchemy produced when differing rhetoricaU
ideo logical orientations mix. The j uxtaposition of incongruous words,
ideog raphs, and eve n arguments has the effect of shatteri ng " pieties,"
which, according to Thomas Rosteck and Michael Leff, function as "the
stable frames of reference which direct human percept ion and determine
our j udgements about what is proper in a given circumstance" (1989, p.
329). The fracturing process engendered by planned incongruity is "at once
subversive and constructive ; old pieties must fall to provide space for new
ones" (Rosteck & Leff, 1989, p. 330). It is this rhetorica l quality that makes
perspective by incongruity an effective strategy for inducing socia l change.
Indeed, the metaphor of " atom cracking" in many ways symbolizes what
Kariyn Kohrs Campbell argues is " the principle of rhetorical invention" for
women and marginalized rhetors. According to Campbell, the " key element
in the erosion of the myths that j ustify women's subordination and the
ideological barriers that retard socia l change" is subversion, or " using the
master's tools to underm ine, even sabotage, the master's house" ( 1998, p.
I 12). The tactics that Cam pbell highlights, such as " inventive uses of the
past," "symbolic reversal," and the creation of a "speaking self " through
" persona or role," challenge institutionali zed sex ism by denaturalizing the
formul ation of patriarchy ( 1998). In short, these tactics function through a
process of feminist "atom crack ing," or the strategic j uxtapos ition of
incongruent ideals, values, practices, and symbols that not only ca ll into
question gender ideologies but also remoralize them.
Burke's comic frame sparks feminist "atom cracking" by introducing
the "everyday" as a site of scrutiny. In making people both students of
themselves and of their soc ial structure, the comic frame casts a communal
failing or censurable act in a comedic light. As a result, the comic frame
" treats this misbehaving individual [or institution] as mistaken, and
embarrasses him or her by revealing the error of the actio n to all"
(Brummett, 1994, p. 134). The comic frame thus offers a corrective to the
140 Wome n's Studies in Com munica tion

inequities of the present system while workin g within the existing social
structure. Burke's "comic corrective," Hugh Duncan explains, " seeks to
unmask vices by confronting ends or ideals with means or practice. The
final transcend ence in comedy is soc iety itself, people who in hate and love
try to resolve differences" (1962, p. 390). For femin ists, a primary means
for reaching such transcendence is the appropriation and ironic reposition -
ing of co nventional patriarchal symbolic codes.
The growing literature on Burke's dram atic frames demonstrates that
many comic strategies used by marginalized groups recast dom inant tropes
or archetypes as a mean of " engineering a shift" in the social order
(193 7/198 4, p. 173). Spiritu ality, ironic or playful word play, and the
exaggeration and concealment of identit y markers are among the strategies
previously isolated by rhetorica l critics. (Carlson, 1986, 1988; Christiansen
& Hanson, 1996 ; Powell, 1995). By borrowin g "forms or materials"
normally assoc iated with dominant culture, marginalized rhetors crea te a
perspecti ve by incongruity that draws attenti on to social inequities (Radner
& Lansing, 1993, p. 10). This is not to sugges t that appropriation is a subset
of comic strategies of incongruit y. Rather, the point is that domi nant
symbolic codes- when opened up to what they exclude through planned
incongruity-constitute a powerful inventiona l resource within a feminist
co mic corrective (Ca mpbell, 1998, p. 123; Radner and Lansing 1993,
p. II ).
The strategies of incongruit y used by the Guerrilla Girls foregro und the
very myths that seek to keep women in their place as muses, not creators of
art, and as objec ts rather than agents of history. Indeed, the gro up's mission
since forming in 1985 has been to fight sexism and racism by demonstrat-
ing the incongruity of conve ntional definiti ons of artists, fem ininit y, and
femini st activism. Their rhetoric subve rts traditional definitions of the
artist as an indi vidual genius (read male) producing " seminal" and
" potent" works by exposing the netw ork s of power (pas t and present ) that
put women artists at a professional disadvantage- such as being pro hibited
from attending art academies until the mid-n ineteenth century. In add ition,
an exaggeration and playfulness with norms of femininity, which defines
the Guerrilla Girl s' rhetoric , connects feminism and femininity in ways that
deconstruct domin ant unde rstandin gs of both terms. Finally, the group
draws attenti on to the gap betw een formal rights and actual practices with
statistics and " believe it or not" quotations that make denial and
indifference an unfitting response to gender inequ ality.
 Anne Teresa Demo 141

Strategies of Incongruity: Mimicry, Historical Re-vision,

and Strategic Juxtaposition s
My analysis is orga nized around the three strategies that most define the
group's rhetoric al style: mimicry, a feminist re-v ision of history, and
strateg ic ju xtapo sitions. In the first section, I address how the group's use
of mimicry, or the exagg eration of a " patriarchally designated position,"
calls into question co nventional notions of fem ininity and sexuality that
mainta in the male/female, artist/mu se dichotomies (Radner & Lansing ,
1993, p. 10). From the group's name and dress to their use of sex ual
innuendo, the Guerilla Girl s transform what it means to be a "girl"
produ cing art. The second strategy of incongruit y addresse d is the group 's
inve ntive approac h to history. By assuming the names of under-
ac know ledged female artists during interviews and perform ances, the
Guerrill a Girl s draw attention to the number of forgotten women arti sts
who have produced art throughout history. Thi s tactic is further realized in
the group's book project, The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the
History of Western Art , which recasts the history of art as a " history of
discrimin ation " ( 1998, p. 7). Finally, I exa mine how strategic ju xtaposi-
tions in the Guerrilla Girls' broadsides illuminate the inco ngruity of
American claim s to equal opportunity. These strategies displace the pieties
that define artistic genius as a singularly male trait and sexism as an issue
of the past. Ultimately, this displacement co nstructs a new piety based on
inclu siveness, diversity, and equality.

Mimi cry
In a 1975 interview publi shed in Dialectiques, Luce Irigaray delineates
the subversive potenti al of mimicry as an avenue for disruptin g the
phallocentri c order. By se lf-consc iously adoptin g an exaggerated version
of traditi onal femininity, femini sts " convert a form of subordination into
an affirmation, and thus begin to thwart it" (Irigaray, 197711 985, p. 76).
Mimicry works by demonstrating the impropriety of "a masculine logic"
that defines women in univocal terms (Irigaray, 197711 985, p. 76). The
challenge involved in mimicry, then, is to ex pose the incongruity of a
norm ative standard without being " reduced to it" (Irigaray, 197711 985, p.
76) . The Guerrilla Girl s' name, appearance, and visual style all illustrate
how feminists ca n subvert a static definition of femininity throu gh
mim icry. Their comic transgression of the binaries that sustain such a
standard places femininity within the lens of a fun-house mirror, as Burke
would say-at the "reverse end" of one 's glass (1954, p. 120). The
142 Women 's Studies in Communication

perspecti ve by incongruity engendered by such a view frac tures assoc ia-

tions between the feminine, passivity, and subordination that maintain
patriarchy.
Like other marginalized gro ups that reclaim the names and epithets used
aga inst them , the Guerrill a Girls' reclamation of the term " girl," as well as
all things girlish, demon strates how mimicry functions as a strategy of
incongruity (Allen & Faigley, 1995, pp. 152-153). When asked if labeling
themse lves "girls" stands in co ntradiction to their femi nist politics,
Guerri lla Girl Frida Kahlo explained, "Calling a grow n woman a girl can
imply she's not complete, mature, or grow n up. But we decided to reclaim
the word 'girl,' so it co uldn' t be used agai nst us" (199 5, p. 14). This
process of recla matio n is not limited to the group's name, however. The
Guerri lla Girls' signature color is pin k and is featured in their posters,
postcards, and fliers. For exa mple, the Guerrilla Girls combined a pink
background with a decorative script, deferenti al language, and eve n a
dainty (albeit frow ning) flower sket ched at the top of their 1986 poster that
targeted art collectors; the poster's text read, " Deares t Art Collector, It has
come to our attention that your collection, like most, does not contain
enough art by women. We know you feel terrible about this and will rectify
the situation immediate ly. All our love, Guerri lla Girls." The Guerri lla
Girls ' compliant tone and curlicue script mocked the equiva lence between
femininity and passivity while co ncomitantly violating that very assoc ia-
tion. The posters, eve n sugarcoa ted in pink, were part of a guerri lla assa ult
on a system that long enco uraged women artists to conceal any references
to their history and experie nces as a woma n (Chadwick, 1990). The
Guerrilla Gir ls wield femininity as a weapon, and in so doing, not only
make "'assets' out of ' liabilities' " but also mock the contradictio ns
inherent in a logic that dismisses women's contributions to art (Burke,
1937/1984, p. 171).
A natural extension of the Guerrilla Girls' strateg ic playfulness with
norms of femininity is their use of sexually charged language and
innuendo. For instance, many Guerilla Girl perfo rmances begi n with an
audio tape. The voice, which mimics Marilyn Monroe 's brea thiness,
advises the " boys" in the audience to protest the " dras tic NEA cuts" by
sending their "schlongs,' wrapped up " real pretty," to the office of
Senator Jesse Helms- a popular target for the gro up. As the men in the
audience squirm, the Monroesque voice purrs, "We know it makes you
uncomfortable. It' s not easy hand ing your reproducti ve organ ove r to the
federal government. But take it from us girls, you' ll get used to it"
 Anne Teresa Demo 143

(Guerrilla Girls, 1995, p. 27). By attempting to seduce male listeners to

symbolically identify agai nst themselves, the Guerrilla Girls reco ntextual-
ize the reproductive right s afforded to women and men . Moreover, the
co ntrast of ribald expressio ns with the subversive citation of Monroe 's
voice works to simultaneously entice and unsettle audiences . The Guerr illa
Girl s further challenge a static, esse ntializing vision of femininity with
their playfu l blurring of binaries. Systems of representation regard ing
gender, race, sexuality, eve n human domin ance over animals, are inter-
rupted, resigni fied, and turned upside down by the group's j ungle drag.
According to Guerrilla lore, the decis ion to use the mask as a disguise came
only after a Guerrilla Girl misspelled " guerrilla" as " gorilla." Viewed as
an " enlightened mistake," Guerrill a Girl Kathe Kollwitz recas t the
spelling error as an opportunity to challenge the male/female binary by
deem ing the misspellin g the source of the gro up's " mask-ulinity" ( 1995, p.
15). The group's masks, like its memb ers, are diverse. Some are ferocious,
fangs exposed , while others appear to be smiling, almost mocking. The
d iversity of masks used by memb ers also underscores the gro up's
commitment to a multicultural memb ership. Some gori llas are albino,
whereas others have facia l features ranging in color from mahogany to
sable. The aggressiveness sugges ted by the gorilla/g uerrilla assoc iation
and the mask's beastly cou ntenance stands in direc t co ntrast to the
exaggerated femi ninity embodied in the group' s press photos and perfor-
mances. Although some Guerrill a Girls make appeara nces in the art-wo rld
uniform of " nondescript, bohemia n black clothes," others don fishnets and
stilettoes. One Guerri lla Girl explains, " Wearing these clothes [short skirts
and high heels] with a gorilla mask co nfounds the stereotype of female
sexiness" (1995 , p. 15). At a Guerrilla Girl perfor mance, then, one may
find the " girls" in everything from micro minies and stilettoes to a
maternit y dress. Recent press photos feature an eve n newer look for the
Guerri lla Gir ls-non-we stern attire such as serapes (Goldstein, 1998, p.
47 ). The mix of masks and j ungle drag allows the Guerri lla Girls to go wild
with the strictures that have defined women in direct relation to their bodies
and " natural instincts." In so doing, the goa l is not simply reinterp reting
the feminine but "jamming the theoretical machinery itself, of suspe nding
its pretension to the production of truth and of a meanin g that are
exce ssive ly univocal" (lrigaray, 1977/1985, p. 78) . This process crea tes a
pers pec tive by incongruity that not only apes feminine conventio ns but
also, as I will demonstrat e in the next section, recasts women 's place within
art history.
144 Women 's Studies in Co mmunication

Historical Revision
When art historian Linda Nochlin posed the now infamous question,
" Why have there been no great women artists?" in her 1971 Art News
essay, there was, in Nochlin 's word s, " no such thin g as a femini st art
history" (Noc hlin, 1988, p. xi). Th e acco mplishments of wome n artists
appeared, if anyw here, in the footnotes of the artistic ca non. Since
Nochlin 's essay, a numb er of inroad s have been made. The recov ery and
revaluation of women artists from the past is ju st one exa mple of the effec t
of feminist art history on the study of art. The question that now drives
femini st art activists, particularly the Guerrilla Girl s, is " Why haven 't
more women been considered great artists throughout Western history?"
( 1998, p. 7). Indeed, this question functions as the foca l point for the 1998
book The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History ofArt, which
surveys women artists from ancient Greece forward. The rhetorical style of
the book, like the gro up's poster assa ult on sex ism and racism, mixes
humor with historical fact. The history by incongruit y engendered by the
gro up's re-vi sion violates the con ventions (pieties) that have mad e the term
"woman artist" an oxy moro n within the history of art.
From their beginn ings in 1985, the Guerr illa Girls have understood the
power of history. Karlyn Kohr s Ca mpbell's word s provide a fitting
descripti on of the group's attitude toward history when she writes that
"women's history is a profound resource; similarly, ignorance of such
history confounds interpr etations of discourse by and abo ut women of the
past" (Ca mpbell, 1998, p. 115). In the years since their incepti on, the gro up
has tried to ave nge the omission of women artists from art history
textbooks and museum exhibitions by both reint roducing women art ists
(past and present ) into the public view and expos ing the legacy of art world
discrimination. One of the group's earliest attempts to subvert the canon of
Western art history was to reintroduce the names of dead, under-
acknowledge d women artists as a way to distinguish between Guerrilla
Girls. For exa mple, Guerrill a Girl Rosie Carriera took on the name of an
underappr eciated 17th-centu ry Venetian co urt artist listed in a foot note in
Rainer Marin a Rilke's Letters to Cezanne. By adopting the names of
under-ackn owledged women, the gro up dra ws attention to the historical
and creative contributions often unrecognized by ca nonica l surveys such as
Janson 's History of Art and Gardn er 's Art Through the Ages . Ultimately,
this process of planned incongruity through namin g reclaims women 's
 Anne Teresa Demo 145

history as an inventive resource while debunking the ju stifying myth that

women lack the sensibilities and skills necessary to be "great artists."
The Guerr illa Girls Bedside Companion to the History ofArt also serves
as a recovery project, albeit with a twist. The book ju xtaposes short
biographi cal sketches of artists ove rlooked in the canonic al surveys of art
history with cartoo ns, top-t en lists, and " believe it or not" quotations that
dramatize the forma l and informal barriers women artists have faced
throughout time (Guerrilla Girls, 1998, back co ver). As a rhetorica l work,
the book is structured to disrupt "our sense of what properly goes with
what" (Burke, 1954 , p. 74). By attaching irreverent titles to "serious
subjec ts" and a sarcas tica lly whimsica l tone to the history of art, the
Guerrilla Girls mock the artistic canon and " provide ammunition for all the
wome n who are-or will become- artists" (1998, p. 9). The perspecti ve
by inco ngruity offered throughout prompt s new answers to old questions
regarding the history of women artists.
Feminist arguments that the personal is political radica lized the
women's liberati on movement durin g the 1960 s. The Guerrilla Girl s' use
of fictionalized narratives in their 1998 book has a similar effec t on the
history of art. From imagined conversations with twentieth-century
African-American artis t Augusta Savage to a posthumo us letter addresse d
to the Guerrilla Girls by eighteenth century artist Elisabeth Vigee- Le Brun ,
fictive exc hanges within the boo k dramatize the strugg les faced by women
artists beca use of their ge nder and race. The intimate tone used in
"correspondences" between artists and readers evokes ide ntification
across time. For exa mple, the two-page co nversation between the Guerri lla
Girls and Aug usta Savage fictionalizes some of the artist's most painful
memories abou t being an Afr ican-A merican artist during the days of Jim
Crow:

[No gallery] would show the work of living black artists for fear
that the artists and their friends would hang around the gallery
and no white folks would come. Under pressure, some cave d in
and proposed spec ial eveni ng hours for "colored people." How
insulting. You had to have a lot of courage as a black woman to
set foot in museum s, too. At the State Fair in New Jersey, black
artis ts were show n in the same section as the mentally impaired.
The Museum of Modern Art alwa ys showe d lots of African art
because it made the modem white boys look goo d, but show
146 Women's Studies in Co mmunication

Africa n-American artists? It was out of the question. (Guerrilla

Girls, 1998, p. 76)

In additi on to being historically accurate, this imagined recollection not

only publ icizes but also personali zes the history of discrimination absent
from most surveys of art. The impl ied message sugges ted by such
remembrances is that the history of art has been, for the most part, a rigged
game. This perspective challenges conventional criteria for gauging who is
includ ed and omitted from the history books by remind ing readers that
making art "is not a free autonomous activity of a super-endo wed
individual" (Nochlin, 1988, p. 158). Indeed, one aim of the book is to enact
an understand ing of

the total situation of art making, both in term s of the developm ent
of the art maker and in the nature and quality of the work itself. ..
[that] are mediated and determin ed by specific and definable
social instituti ons, be they art academic, systems of patronage,
mythologies of the divine creator, artist as he-m an, or social
outcast. (Nochlin, 1988, p. 158)

If such imagined conversa tions provide a glimpse at the " personal,"

then snapshots of how custom, laws, and culture shaped women 's lives
offer insight into how the " political" has restricted art- making. By
situating women's acco mplishments in relation to their historical co ntext,
the Guerrilla Girls foreground the institu tional barriers that legislated
women's artistic silence . Such an approac h, as Nochlin sugges ted in her
classic 1971 essay, exposes " the entire romantic, elitist, individual-
glorifying, and monograph-producing substructure upon which the profes-
sion of art history is based" (p. 153). In con trast, the history by inco ngru ity
fashioned by the Guerrill a Girls' irreverent and personal approach to
history challenges both the evidence and organizi ng logic of the questio n,
" Why have there been no great women artists?" Their personification of
under-acknowledged women artists not only serves as a tribute to the
artists' achieve ments, but also contradicts the myth that women lack
artistic ge nius. Even more importantly, however, the group's emphasis on
social and institutional conditions for producing great art co nfounds the
very notion of artistic genius that structures the ca nonical approac h to art
history. The group's reliance on perspecti ve by incongruit y to dramatize
social co nditions is not limited to their critique of art history, however. As
 Anne Teresa Demo 147

the follow ing section reveals, the Guerrilla Girls also employ perspective
by incongruit y to redress contemporary forms of instituti onalized inequal -
ity both inside and outside the art world.

Strategic Juxtap osition

Strategic j uxtaposition co nstitutes a mainstay of both Burke's co mic
corrective and feminist rhetor ic (Christiansen & Hanson , 1996; Powell ,
1995). Characterize d as a strategy for soc ial change , j uxtapos ition " brings
together in a state of tension the discour ses of two or more status gro ups"
(Allen & Faigley, 1995, p. 159). The strategy of j uxtapos ition works on a
number of levels within the Guerrilla Girls' visual rhetoric. As Kimberly
Powell notes, gro ups use ju xtapo sition to remorali ze the socia l order by
" placing co nflicting co mmitments of the system side by side" (Powell,
1995 , p. 94) . The Guerrilla Girls accomplish this goa l by employing three
forms of j uxtaposition. First, the group j uxtaposes quotations from
individuals and institu tions with iron ic headers that underscore the
incongruit y of conserva tive positions on rape, abortion , as well as gay and
lesbian rights. For example, the Guerrilla Girls' 1992 poster, "SUPREME
CO URT JU ST ICE SUPPORTS RIGHT TO PRIVACY FOR GAYS AND
LESBI ANS," pairs an image of Justice Thomas at his 1991 hearings with
an excerpt from his testi mony:

I' m not going to engage in discussions of what goes on in the

most intimate parts of my private life or the sanctity of my
bedroom . They are the most intimate parts of my privacy and will
remain j ust that.

Unwilling to leave the implications of such a j uxtapos ition up for grabs, the
Guerrilla Girls offer their own conclusion: " Clarence Thomas cla ims that a
person 's sex life is none of the gove rnment's business." Seco nd, the group
j uxtaposes image s with rhetorica l questions to denaturalize conve ntional
frames of reference. For example, one of the 1991 posters produ ced by the
gro up to oppose the Gul f War j uxtaposed an image of a female solider with
the question : " DID SHE RISK HER LIFE FOR GOVERNMENTS TH AT
ENSLAVE WOM EN ?" The text/ima ge j uxtaposi tion recontextualizes the
propr iety of the U.S. military commitment to co untries who deny women
basic rights. Finally, by mixing domin ant cultura l sy mbols such as the
Mona Lisa and Jean Auguste Domin ique Ingres's Grande Odalisque with
the Guerri lla Girls' unique brand of feminist aesthetics, the gro up exposes
148 Women 's Studies in Co mmunication

the hypocrisies of art world and soc ial politics, Although these varied
forms of j uxtaposition appear in much of the gro up's visual rhetor ic, two
broadsides in particular showcase how j uxtaposition functions as a strategy
of incon gruity: the Guerrilla Girls' 1989 critique of the Metrop ol itan
Museum 's exhibition record and the group's 1991 anti-Gulf War poster.
During the fall of 1989, the Guerrill a Girls asked museum- goers a
question they would not soo n forget: " Do women have to be naked to get
into the Met Museum ?" In so doing, the group conco mitantly crea ted an
image that would becom e one of its most lasting icons-the gor illa-
masked odalisque (Fig ure I), The odalisque figure, appropriated from Jean
Auguste Dominique Ingres's 1814 paint ing of the Grand Odalisque ,
anchors the poster and is positioned in opposition to the bold-face
punch-l ine that reads: " Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art
Sections are women , but 85% of the nudes are female." Unlike the figure in
Ingres's paintin g, this odalisque dons a gorilla mask. The text/image
juxtaposi tion and implied contrast between the Ingres and Guerri lla Girl
oda lisque crea te an argument by incongruity that challenges art world
cla ims of ge nder equality.
Historically, the image of Ingres' s odalisque, like its twent ieth-cen tury
twin, crea ted controversy. Although Ingres was called " the conserva tor of
good and true art" from the mid-1820s forward, upon comp letion of the
painting in 1814, he was highly criticized for creating a painting deemed
" primitive" (Croix & Turner, 1986, p. 824) . The recl ining nude, a co mmon
tapas for painters from Titian forwa rd, was made exo tic by Ingres when he
depicted the figure as an inhabitant of a Turkish harem. The artist's reliance
on a coo l pallet for this languid figure makes the deadened stare of his kept

Do WOInen 1ImJ8 nalOlHI to

.useam'?

Fig ure I. "Do wome n have to be naked to get in to the Met . Mus eum?" (1989).
Rep rinted with permission of the Gu errilla Girls .
 An ne Teresa Demo 149

woma n eve n more vulnerable. With her back to the viewe r, breast partially
revealed , the odalisque waits, submissive and indifferent.
In stark compariso n, the Guerrilla Girls' odalisque rests on a bed of
cranberry co lored sheets and dons a gorill a mask. The dark background of
the painting, which frames the oda lisque, is now recast in the shade of
banana yellow. The fan that Ingres's odalisque once held now appea rs
strikingly simi lar to an erect penis. A sack-like shape, moreover, is attached
to the handle of the fan. Indeed , the Guerrilla Girls transform ed Ingres's
vision of "idealized fema le beauty" into an " exotic" nude with a
da ngero us bite. The teeth on the gorilla mask are outlined, making them
more noticeab le and ferocio us. By appropriating Ingres's odalisque, the
Guerrilla Girls illustrate how history can be re-prese nted. Yet in order to
repre sent their vision of idealized fema le beauty, the Guerrilla Gir ls must
not only appro priate the odalisque image but also mark it. Ingres's
oda lisque is a clas sic symbol of patriarchal art ; by defacing it, the Guerri lla
Girls use the odalisque to critique the very instituti ons that ca nonize such
images. Their juxtaposition of symbols produced by the dom inant (male)
culture with feminist imagery call into question the ideological co nstruc-
tion of idea lized femini nity as submissive.
After lead ing viewe rs on, or rather toward, one way of co nceptualizing
how wome n artists "get into" the Met, the gro up abruptly shifts the frame.
The dramatic margin of difference between the percentage of women
artists exhib ited and the number of nude fema le figures displayed
foreground s the legacy of objectification within the artistic ca non. Histori-
cally, women have been limited to three roles: muse, model, or object. The
sugges tion that, even in 1989, a woman has better chances of appear ing on
ga llery walls as a nude model rather than an artist drama tizes the art world
entailments of instituti onalized sex ism. The group's tactical use of color
furt her emphasizes the point. By ju xtaposing the submissive figure with the
gorilla's grow ling countenance, the group highlights the disparity revealed
in the hot pink punchline acce nts-5% artists, 85% nudes. In addition, the
banana-yellow backdrop attracts the viewe r eve n from a distance. The
tactical use of the cranberry color for the "fan" and sheets may eve n
sugges t that the odalisque holds a seve red penis, since from a distance the
" fan" seems to bleed into a larger pool of burgundy. Does this image
suggest a castrating, gorilla-masked odalisque? Such an interpretation
would certainly refra me-if not co mpletely subve rt-the art world's
co nceptio n of the submissive muse.
150 Women 's Studies in Communication

In addition to targeting individuals and institutions within the art

community, the Guerrilla Girls made an initial foray into the political arena
with a 1989 poster addressed to Senator Jesse Helms. By 1991, the
Guerrilla Girls began to aim their attacks at the nation 's political
leader-President George Bush (Figure 2). Like many of their more
political posters, the Bush broadside is structured by two title/image
juxtapositions. First, the poster contrasts the bold-face heading , "George
Bush, 'The Education President'," with an image of countless military
graves crowned with commencement caps to dramatize the contradictions
of Bush 's education policy. This somewhat atypical graduation portrait
implies that during Bush 's tenure as the "education president," students
will bear a heavy cross-their lives. The cruciform markers imbue the
image with patriotic and religious weight and undermine Bush's campaign
emphasis on education.
A second juxtaposition further questions the motives behind military
recruitment efforts that target poor Americans. The incongruity engendered
by the contrast of the graveyard backdrop and caption, " Many poor

Many poor Americans loin the Army to get an educatiol

and a better life. If Bush had a real policy for public
education, who would fight his wars ?
--.. ...
Figure 2. "George Bush, 'The Education President' " (1991). Reprinted with
permission of the Gu errilla Girls.
 Anne Teresa Demo 15 1

Americans jo in the Army to get an education and a better life," puts an

insidious spin on military recruit ing rhetoric used since World War II
(Boy d, 1998, p. 128). Even as the broadside emphasizes the opportunities
that military service offers to " disadvantaged" American s, the poster 's
backd rop enge nders a uniquely unpatriotic point of view-a view further
punctuated by the concluding question, " If Bush had a real policy for
publ ic education, who would fight his wars?" When the poster first
appeare d in public, favo rable media cove rage of the Gulf War was flooding
airwaves. Within this context , the conflictin g image created by the
Guerrilla Girl s denaturalized the patriotic slant so often attached to milita ry
service. More specifically, the poster 's image/text j uxtaposi tions under-
scored the gove rnment's vested interest in maintaining a subordinate class.
Having "shattered" the piety attached to military serv ice (as an answe r to
the war on poverty), the group suggested another solution-a real policy
for public education. Although the Bush broad side represents a broadening
of targets beyond art, the group's continued reliance on strateg ic ju xtaposi-
tion attests to its poten tial as an effective tool for socia l critique.
The three strategies discussed in this section enable the Guerrilla Girl s
to dramatize the pattern s and co nventions that sustain a culture of denial
regarding gender inequality (see Rhode, 1997). As my analysis illustrat es,
the Guerrilla Girls' use of mimicry unhin ges the soc ial equiva lence
between fem ininity and passivity. Their playfully ironic bra nd of feminin-
ity redefines popul ar images of feminism. One importa nt element in this
redefinition , moreo ver, is the Guerilla Girl s' re-vision of art history. Thi s
re-vision not only functions as a recovery process but also exposes the
co ntradictions traditionally glossed in the makin g of art history. Finally, the
Guerri lla Girls employ strategic ju xtapositions to denatur alize the patterns
of discrimination institutionalized in both the artistic co mmunity as well as
political and popul ar culture. Taken together, these three strategies create a
perspective by incongruity that exposes the difference between equality in
the abstract and inequality in prac tice.

Conclu sion: A Comi c Politic s of Sub version

Perspective by inco ngruity engenders socia l change by highli ghting
contradictions in the social order. For the Guerri lla Girls, perspective by
incongrui ty is the most agile rhetorical strategy for co nfronti ng the myths
and denials of institutionalized sexis m. Even as the gro up shatters one
152 Women's Studies in Commu nication

system of pieties, or frame of reference, they read y audiences/viewers for

another.
At the most basic level, all of the group's strategies of incon gruit y
(mimi cry, re-vision of history, and strategic juxtaposition) undermine the
assumpti on of achieved equality, or as the Guerrilla Girls put it: " Today
women are equal, right ?" ( 1998, p. 90). Not quite . In dramati zing different
forms of gender and racial inequality, the group enacts altern ative visions
based on diversity and social ju stice. Mimicry exaggerates norms of
femininity to the point of rupturin g the very logic that naturalizes the
assoc iation between femininity, passivity, and objectification. This exag-
geration also functions as a reapp ropriation of sorts by creating a new
empowe red frame of reference that fuses femini sm with femininity. In
addit ion, the group's irreverent and inventi ve approach to history demysti-
fies the masculinized mythology of artist-gen ius. In so doing, the gro up not
only advances a definition of art that is sensitive to the conditions
producti ve of great art but also enacts a world-view best reflected in one of
the group's 1989 posters, which read " YOU' RE SEE ING LESS TH AN
HALF THE PICT URE without the vision of women artists and artists of
color." Finally, strategic j uxtaposition dramatizes the incongruit y of
assumed equality in the face of institutionalized inequalities. As exa mples
of feminist " atom-cracking," eac h strategy subjects the language and
ideology of patriarchy to a "'crac king' process" that wrenches apart the
language and mythologies of institutionali zed sexism so as to enable a
" fresh point of view, the heuristic or perspective value of a plann ed
incongruit y" (Burke, 1954, pp. 119, 121).
When framed co mically, perspective by incongruity establishes a frame
of acce ptance that remoralizes a situation throu gh " charitable debun king"
rather than revolut ion (Burke, 1937/1984, p. 166; Carlson, 1988, p. 310) .
Although their appropriation of the " guerrill a" namesake may suggest
otherwise , my analysis demonstrates that the Guerrill a Girls seek to gai n
equal access into the system, not to ove rturn it altogether. In an interview
publi shed in Art in America, the group argues that to

actually chan ge the system is so unbelievably complex that at this

point , our interest, as we have already said, is in getting women
more access to it. So that' s our attitude about change, as opposed
to breaking down the system. (Gablik, 1994, p. 47 )
 Anne Teresa Demo 153

This attitude is evident throughout the Guerrilla Girl s' rhetoric, which casts
cen surab le acts as entai lments of human fallibility rather than evil. Their
posters and performances operate as public scoldings that seek to
embarrass rather than scapegoat or spark violence. By casti ng the failure to
live up to communa l ideals in a comic light, the Guerrilla Girl s are able to
restru ctur e the master 's house without leveling it first. The end goa l, as
Barry Brumm ett notes, is "awareness of these contradictions and of the
harm to society that they cause" (1984, p. 220 ). Thi s objective moti vates
all of the gro up's projects, explains one Guerrilla Girl in her 1999 web page
travel diary: " Our M.O. has always been to upset people a bit, then get
them to listen and change their mind s. It worked !" (1999).
Although the Guerrill a Girl s' success is impossible to quantify, their
longevity and visibility do indicate that the group has made an impact.
Their online site and 1995 book, Confess ions of the Guerilla Girls, include
letters and emails from both fans and foes- testamen ts to the group' s
influen ce and capacity to spark dialogue. Fem inists such as Susan Faludi ,
Robin Morgan, and Lucy Lippard cite the group as a model. bell hooks, for
exa mple, writes that " the work of the Guerrilla Girl s represent s a most
powerful political union between theory and practice. They set an exa mple
for feminists everywhere" (Guerrilla Girls, 1999). Another co mpelling
testament co mes from the numerous art world targets who, like Museum of
Modem Art Director of Paintings and Sculpture Kirk Varnedoe, assert that
the Guerrill a Girl s are " are prime consciousness raisers and they do it in a
way that 's effective, with wit in all senses of the word " (Guerri lla Girl s,
1995, p, 99) . Since the group's incepti on in 1985, "jungle fever " has
spread across the globe with the emergence of Guerri lla Girl s West in San
Francisco, Guerrilla Girl s MA & PA in Boston and Paris, Las Chicas
Guerrilleras in Barcelona and Palme Girls in Stockh olm (Guerr illa Girl s,
1995, p. 94) .
An important key to the group's influence in the art co mmunity as well
as for feminist politics is the Guerrilla Girls' visual format. Despite the
grow ing literature on comic strategies of social change, few have
considered how such strategies work in visual form s (Christiansen &
Hanson, 1996). My analysis contributes to this line of inquiry by
dem onstrating how the Guerri lla Girls' visual rhetori c faci litates a comic
perspective. First, the broadside form at is non-threatening yet emphatic.
Second , the mix of outlandish imagery and statistics forms a credible
hyperbole that raises conscio usness about the inadequacies of the social
154 Women's Studies in Com munication

order without scapegoa ting. Finall y, the group's visual style maximizes the
resources of popular culture-specifically an advertis ing aesthetic- in
order to foster identi fication with those who would typically rejec t or
ignore feminist rhetoric. " We have fun playing around with our image ,"
one Guerrilla Girls explains, " We are awa re that there are people who have
a very negative take on the word ' feminist,' but we' re not about to do away
with the word . . . We are trying to get across a certain amo unt of
humor-that' s one way in which you engage people " (O' Neil, 1990, p.
II ). In sum, the coupling of comic subversion and visual rhetoric opens up
both how and where femini st resistance happens.
Since the 1848 Seneca Falls women 's rights conve ntion, activists
advoca ting for gender equ ality have often been denied co nventional
forum s for bringing their message to the people. As a result, feminist
rhetor ic frequentl y occurs away from the platforms and statehouses of
gove rnment. Femini st scholarship in rhetorical studies, as Bonnie Dow
remind s us, " must turn its attenti on to the variety of contexts in which
feminist strugg le occur s" (Dow, 1997, p. 104). This study reveals how one
group of femini st art activists, the Guerrilla Girl s, responded to their
instituti onal constraints by making the streets of New York their canvas .
Even the group's most recent action-a sticker produced prior to the
Academy Awards that scolds Hollywood for its record for nominating
women directors by asking "AS GOOD AS IT GET S?" - advocates
transformin g movie theater bathroom stalls into sites of feminist conscio us-
ness-raising. Although unconventional and decidedly impious, the Guer-
rilla Girls' co mic politics of subversion demonstrates the interp lay between
visual rhetoric, feminist resista nce and soc ial change. Further exploratio n
of the capabilities and constraints of visual strateg ies of incong ruity are
needed, however. Be it at the podium , on the streets, eve n in fake fur, the
rhetoric of feminist resistance, while not always recognized, lurks thro ugh-
out the jungle of cultural politics.

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Notes
I Although app ropnation functions as both a related proce ss to stra tegies of
inco ngruity and implied eleme nt wi thin particular ma nifestations of the Guerrill a Girl s'
rhetor ic, the unifyi ng strategy that runs through ou t the gro up's work as a whole is more
aptly desc ribed by the entailments of perspect ive by inco ngruity. For an excellent
discu ssion of appropriatio n as a feminist rhetorical tool see Radne r & Lanser ( 1993) and
Shugar t (199 7).
2T his free play with symbolic codes, however, has its cos ts. Respon ding to the
charge that the masks repro duce racis t co nstruc tion s, the group maintains that in using
the gorilla mask, they are " exploding stereotypes" (Guerrilla Girl s, 1995, p. 23).
Guerri lla Girl Meta Fuller eve n makes the argu me nt that, "There is nothing seco nd rate
or inferior abo ut the gor illa and to think so is Homo-sapi en s-centri c" ( 1995, p. 23) .