Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Feminist Art Base: Joan Arbeiter

What! Can Anything Be Better Than Tide?

Joan Arbeiter. What! Can Anything Be Better Than Tide?, 2004.

Description:
What! Can Anything Be Better Than Tide?
(part of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl Fulfilling Society's Limited Expectations Series)

The vintage snapshot shows the six-year old artist at play. My "toys" are dolls' clothes, clothesline and clothespins.

The pretty housewife who is ecstatic over her clean laundry is from a 1950's detergent advertisement. This authentic back cover from McCall's magazine shows a striking visual correspondence to the activity of the child who was, in turn, being groomed for this role.

The current Girls' Bill of Rights published by Girls, Inc., which is pinned to the clothesline, amounts to a declaration of independence of revolutionary proportions! - Joan Arbeiter


Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl Fulfilling Society's Limited Expectations Series

There are three main elements in the mixed media assemblages. Each begins with vintage photos of me during my formative years, then docu­ments the timeframe in question with an authentic period magazine illus­tration and finally, updates and completes the message by including posi­tion statements from contemporary feminist books and periodicals e.g. Kate Millet, Betty Friedan, N.O.W., Feminist Majority, and Girls, Inc.

It took the Women's Movement to help me to see these cute snapshots in a different light: as a record of my being prepared to assume the then prevailing gender roles.

Medium:
Mixed Media

Tags:
housewife, appropriation, Tide, mixed media, dolls, assemblage, vintage advertisements, humor