The Issue Of Women, Art, And Feminism Has Been Most Urgently Raised By GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

The issue of women, art, and feminism has been most urgently raised by a number of women artists. Several approaches to the problem of defining feminist art have evolved and are being discussed and developed within the feminist art movement. One particular approach has suggested that some sort of female aesthetic or sensibility exists, involving an imagery and formal style specific to women. Proponents insist that an authentic artistic language is being created, corresponding to the distinct social experience of women, independent of “male-defined” art, and essentially liberating. Others argue that the theory of a female aesthetic really restricts women in that it limits them to certain “feminine” shapes, colors, forms, and images. In other words, the female aesthetic seems possibly to be no more than a rehabilitated artistic ghetto, furbished with less than satisfactory answers to the hard question of how to define feminist art. Moreover, some see the rise of a trendy “feminine sensibility“ as clearly opportunist. They point, for example, to the odd coincidence that the so-called female aesthetic is strangely reminiscent of the conventions of much currently fashionable art, and they predict further shifts in the aesthetic as art-world fashions change.

The theory of a female sensibility seems to be based on two equally extreme premises, implicit and not explicit. First, it assumes that an individual’s experience is primarily and perhaps completely determined by gender. Women and men are held to inhabit utterly separate worlds, and variations of social or ethnic experience are considered clearly subordinate to gender distinctions. Its second assumption is that whatever exists today must be essentially unchangeable as the battle of the sexes is eternal and historical. It follows, then, that the only way women artists can operate is to accept these terms and develop their own artistic strengths, autonomously and in opposition to men.

Another approach, both balanced and sensible, would argue for a more transcendental view of social experience and of art. Such a point of view corresponds to the opinion within some sectors of the women’s movement that the meaning of one’s personhood and the nature of relationships between the sexes are an evolving phenomena that can be grasped and acted upon. Pat Mainardi has outlined one interpretation of what this might mean for women artists: “The only feminine aesthetic worthy of the name is that women artists must be free to explore the entire range of art possibilities. We who have been labeled, stereotyped, and gerrymandered out of the very definition of art must be free to define art, not to pick up the crumbs from the Man’s table … We must begin to define women’s art as what women (artists) do, not try to slip and squeeze ourselves through the loophole of the male art world.”

“The issue of women, art, and feminism has been most urgently raised by”- is a reading comprehension exercise for the GMAT. Candidates must be extremely skilled in GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT reading comprehension section contains three comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed to assess candidates' ability to comprehend, analyzation, and application skills. GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions can help candidates who are actively preparing.

Solutions and Explanation

1. Which of the following the best describes the content of the passage?

A) The Impact of the Women’s Art Movement on Aesthetic Theory.
B) The Female Aesthetic: Its impact on Artistic Conventions.
C) An Examination of the Principles and Assumptions of the Theory of a Female Aesthetic.
D) Feminism, Women’s Liberation, and Aesthetic Theory: Social Change and Women’s Art.
E) The Uniqueness of Women’s Art in the Male Art World.

2. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A) Initiate a debate.
B) Summarize related points of view.
C) Define terms and illustrate their applications.
D) Criticize an approach and suggest an alternative one
E) Criticize competing theories.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would most probably agree with which of the following statements about relationships between men and women?

A) Women can develop their own talents most successfully by working completely independent of men.
B) Women and men share no common ground of personal experience.
C) The contemporary relationships between men and women should not affect the work of women artists.
D) Relationships between men and women are not static and can be influenced by new ideas about women’s identities.
E) A consequence of the nature of relationships between men and women is that women can develop their art only by seeing men as opponents.

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