{"id":1717,"date":"2006-11-16T00:40:07","date_gmt":"2006-11-16T08:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2006\/11\/16\/art-everyday-month-day-16\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:42:18","slug":"art-everyday-month-day-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2006\/11\/16\/art-everyday-month-day-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Every Day Month – Day 16"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“The Tyranny of Femininity” \/ 5 x 11″ Bristol vellum with collage and acrylic paint<\/div>\n

I’ve got a basket of random images and clippings. As I looked through them, one slip caught my eye. It was a quote from a woman in middle age (the article was about women and aging). <\/p>\n

As I got older I noticed how important feeling beautiful — an having someone affirm that — has become. I am not ready to be a woman that men do not look at.<\/p>\n

–Unknown<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve never played with feminine wiles. I eschew sexy clothes. I never learned how to flirt. I was attractive and could have, but it made me uncomfortable. The idea of vaunting femininity and sexuality seemed risky. I’d already experience unwanted attention from men without<\/em> making an effort to be especially noticeable. <\/p>\n

And if men noticed me in the past, I really didn’t notice or care. I live in my mind. Always have. I remember once exchanging emails with a man that a friend sort of knew. In one email he asked how much I weighed and what size I wore. I wrote back and asked why. He said that if I wore larger than a size 4 he wasn’t interested in dating, but he’d be okay being friends. Um yeah, as if. I don’t need friends like that. But it did sting a little. <\/p>\n

What about dressing to feel beautiful for oneself? I do, now. I don’t need to feel the admiration from a man to feel attractive.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, this painting reflects what happens when women play into the cultural expectations for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Tyranny of Femininity” \/ 5 x 11″ Bristol vellum with collage and acrylic paint I’ve got a basket of random images and clippings. As I looked through them, one slip caught my eye. It was a quote from a woman in middle age (the article was about women and aging). As I got older […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-quotes"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1717"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11449,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions\/11449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}