Carolee and interior knowledge

By: Nichole Jones

Carolee Second Wave Feminism flourished during the 1960’s and was a time when women really came together to strive for improvements in the treatment of women and the discrimination of women in the world. I recall my mother-in-law telling me that as a young mother of two boys, she found herself divorced and seeking her independence. She was no longer going to be the typical housewife and needed to find a job and make a living for herself as a single parent. She went to get car insurance and was told she needed to have a husband to sign the contracts. The 1960’s were fueled with anti-war demonstrations and civil right movements and women were a great part of that. I believe we are all familiar with the statement that it was a time when women burned their bras. However, women band together to protest the 1968 Miss America pageant by trashing their bras, girdles and nylons. They threw them away as a symbol of the binds that society has on women to look pretty. This is taken from an article written by Jone Johnson Lewis entitled, Bra Burning Feminists NOT. I read from our course reader and found myself bothered yet intrigued by the Carolee Schneemann piece, More than Meat Joy and the Interior Scroll selections. This woman seems very controversial and for some reason reminded me of Frida Kahlo, the famous female Mexican painter. She was something the world was not quite ready for during her lifetime. The photos of Carolee seemed strange and I found a youtube video of her from 2008 where she discusses where the idea of the scroll came from and why she choice to do the piece. Her work was on display in the Brooklyn Museum entitled “Burning Down the House” Building of Feminist Art Collection. Here is the link for the video, Carolee says that “the scroll represents interior knowledge” and it is represented by pulling the scroll out of her body and she reads what it written on it. One of the things on the scroll is the statement “Be prepared”. That sort of made me laugh, because that is the Boy Scout’s National Motto. Anyway, she did find that some viewers of her performance art found it very confusing and felt that it may have played into men’s fantasies of women. She saw it in a different light. She was a huge inspiration for our recent readings and classroom activities, the Vagina Monologues.