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

Head To Toe

Joan Arbeiter. Head To Toe, 2006.

Description:
Head To Toe
(part of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl Fulfilling Society's Limited Expectations Series)

The 6 year old and the 26 year old are both playing dress-up. Here the Suburban Housewife is trying on the role of; Society Matron, Coiffed to Kill and Gowned for Glory.

I'm on my way to (I kid you not) The Barrister's Ball!
Not even Laura Petrie* could do better. - Joan Arbeiter

*Laura and Rob Petrie, played by Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke, were the ideal young T. V. couple
of the early and mid 60s.


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.