FORMATIVE ACTIVITY:

On Art
On Art &
& Sexuality
Sexuality

LAO, YOLAYLA
MEDICE, CLAUDINE
ZABAT III, MARUIS ANTONIO

‘Laughing While Eating Strawberries' ' Watsons'

- Roxana Halls - Kim Leutwyler

Interpretation:

Roxana Hall’s Laughing While Eating Strawberries depicts a woman being herself and indulging the
strawberries in her hand while freely expressing her feelings through laughing. This painting disrupts the idea
that women should be demure all the time, behind a prim and proper housewife is a loud, laughing woman. It
also serves as a reminder that women can freely express themselves and should not be bound by the norms of
society. Meanwhile, ‘Watson’ by Kim Leutwyler portrays so much confidence, embracing flaws and loving every
inch of our body. It also represents a member of LGBTQ-identified and queer-allied women being unbothered by
the opinions and criticisms of society as she freely expresses herself. Gone are the days where freedom to
express oneself is very limited as people nowadays are being more courageous to show who they really are and
aims to break stigma in our society.

How Artworks Challenge Gender Norms:

These two masterpieces clearly represent the challenges of gender norms. The first artwork entitled
"Laughing While Eating Strawberries” by Roxana Halls highlights the gender role of a woman. In the artwork
the background showed dishes and tea sets which depicts that a woman is commonly a homemaker. Moreover,
the artist is breaking the polite convention of femininity through her painting. Opening their mouth wide and
laughing loudly is not feminine. On the other hand, in the amazing masterpiece of Kim Leutwyler entitled “
Watson”, we clearly saw that there is a drastic change in gender norms. In the painting, we have seen a woman
with short hair, tattoo, have a bunch of hair in her armpit and she is wearing a boxer short which is mostly seen
in men. This masterpiece represents how much has changed on how men and women are expected to behave.
Moreover, it is the exploration of idea from the LGBTQ and queer-allied women. It is a challenge for the artist
because he gives out the idea of a new gender norm which only some people can accept and he puts in a lot of
details that expresses the LGBTQ community and especially what gender you are trying to give out.