Feminisms and art theory

Rosi Braidotti’s description of the ‘transdisciplinary’ action of feminism, delineated above with particular reference to her concept of ‘nomadic subjectivity’, makes a useful starting point for a discussion of feminist art theory. Conceived in the plural, feminisms are an interweaving of socio-political, intellectual and material strategies which challenge and change iniquitous power relations founded upon normalising sex and gender roles. In this way, feminists question the structures which make the relationship between sex (the configuration of the body as either ‘male’ or ‘female’) and gender (the social interactions which define the continuum from ‘masculinity’ to ‘femininity’) seem natural, eternal and fixed. Feminists insist instead that the nexus of sex, gender and sexuality are only conceivable as cultural constructs through which power between individuals is managed and maintained; ‘woman’ has been defined in opposition to ‘man’ so that the structural logic of patriarchal systems would appear commonplace, not because they were or are so.