COMMITMENT 101
Image Credit: Jack Mitchell
We secretly suspect that all women are born Guerrilla Girls. It's just a question of helping them discover it.
Guerrilla Girls (1985—) is a shifting collective of activists committed to exposing inequality in the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within the greater arts community.
The group employs culture jamming—expose questionable political assumptions behind commercial culture—in the form of posters, books, billboards, and public appearances to expose discrimination and corruption. To remain anonymous, members don gorilla masks and use pseudonyms that refer to deceased female artists. Identities are concealed because issues matter more than individual identities, "Mainly, we wanted the focus to be on the issues, not on our personalities or our own work."
During its first years, the Guerrilla Girls conducted "weenie counts," counting artworks' male-to-female subject ratios. Data gathered from the organizations like The Met’s public collections in 1989 showed that women artists had produced less than 5% of the works in the Modern Art Department, while 85% of the nudes were female.
Membership in the New York City group is by invitation only, based on relationships with current and past members, and one's involvement in the contemporary art world. A mentoring program was formed within the group, pairing a new member with an experienced Guerrilla Girl to bring them into the fold.
In the last 30 years, a lot has changed, and a lot hasn’t. The galleries that once showed only 10% women artists now show up to 20%. New York museums that, in 1985, gave no women artists a solo exhibition – including the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan, and the Whitney – each gave a single woman a solo show last year.
The aim of their latest campaign, in the form of stickers plastered all over posh New York neighborhoods, is designed to highlight “overemphasis on money as the criterion for success in the art world,” says Kahlo. “Whenever you read about artists, a lot of the coverage has to do with how rich they are, how much their work sells for, which wealthy people in the world have them. No one is looking at the system and saying: is this the way culture is produced?”
Members of the anonymous feminist art collective Guerrilla Girls stopped by The Late Show to talk about the 30 years they've spent trying to make the art world more inclusive.
COMMITMENT 101
Commitment to ourselves and to all those depending on us. Keep our self-respect.
Along with bonding, commitment is a foundational quality between individuals of a capable team. Commitment sees us through difficult times and is the component that drives teams toward great achievements. A team that is committed to one another can focus on the critical path and has a common bond like no other. No one person or group will ever be successful without a firm commitment.
When we think of commitment, we either completely take it for granted, or we think of concrete examples of what it means to follow. Models of followership are visible at sporting events, where people wear the same colors to display their loyalty to specific teams. Military boot camps give everyone the same haircut to illustrate equality and shared experience. Employees are issued badges during their onboarding process identifying them as part of the company. These more tangible examples are really of attachment and identity.
Commitment is more than logos, conformity, uniforms, and badges. The depth of the word “commitment” comes into play when we add concepts such as devotion, duty, faithfulness, and loyalty. Interestingly, these virtues can be attributed to people, teams, governments, countries, ideals, rulers, religions, as they can to sports teams, branches of the military, and organizations we interact with every day.
Commitment is a quality that helps us take a stand and sees us through difficult times. Commitment helps us to keep our self-respect and not compromise our integrity when temptation is great. Commitment is what helps us remain true to our beliefs, values, and ethical boundaries.
We’ll never become successful when we compromise our character and show a lack of commitment to friends, colleagues, or teammates. No individual or team can become great without commitment.
In the business of going about our work—whatever that maybe—we need to know we can count on our colleagues. When we know they will support us when it’s crunch time, we are more likely to go the extra mile when they need help. That connection makes each of us better. Commitment is the force that forges individuals into a team. It’s the quality that moves teams forward toward great goals and accomplishments.
The social contract between organizations and their employees is not much more than time for pay—and employees pick up on that fact. Companies want programs, products, and services that promise “delivery of employee engagement, loyalty, and commitment.” Still, everyone selling those programs knows those results are a byproduct of a healthy system where commitment is part of the bond that holds teams together. I have no problem with an employee requesting a contract adjustment or renegotiation, but to threaten not to give their best if their contract isn’t changed compromises their integrity. It’s not right. There is something wrong when your commitment is always available to the highest bidder.
How do we nurture commitment in ourselves and others?
PRACTICE
Consider the times when you made a commitment to be committed to someone (or their cause), and it proved to be a mistake. What was the hook or reason you committed your efforts?
Remember a time when you relied on someone's commitment to you (or your cause), and they failed. Reflect on the emotions you felt at that time and afterward regarding that incident and that person.
Based on your experience of being let down by someone, how would you describe the nature of forgiveness?
COMMIT
[ ] I am committed to my family, my colleagues, my friends, and my partner to whom I have given my word.
FURTHER READING/ WATCHING
Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls, published in 1995. For more recent Q and A, see their FAQ. Fifty posters and a self-interview augment documentation of ten years of the hit-and-run feminist campaign against sexism, racism, and elitism in the art world and in our culture at large. Originally sold for $30,000 as a promotional and fundraising vehicle.
Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes: Whatever life a woman leads, from biker chick to society girl, there's a stereotype she'll have to live down. The Guerrilla Girls, notorious for their outrageous take on women's issues, now tackle the maze of stereotypes that follow women from cradle to grave. With subversive use of information—and great visuals—they explore the history and significance of stereotypes like Old Maid, Trophy Wife, and Prostitute with a Heart of Gold. They tag the Top Types, examine sexual slurs, explain the evolution of butches and femmes, and delve into the lives of real and fictional women who have become stereotypes, from Aunt Jemima to Tokyo Rose to June Cleaver. The Guerrilla Girls' (2203) assault on injustice towards women will make people laugh, make them mad, and maybe even make them change their minds.
Lectures on Sex, Gender, and Representation: University of Massachusetts professor Sut Jhally Ph.D. shares his entire lecture series. There are 32 Lectures in 3 Parts: Sex, Gender and Femininity, The Construction of Masculinity, and Sexuality and Representation.
In Her Words…
“We went to this demonstration with the usual: placards, picket signs, things like that and we saw it immediately: nobody cares. Not one person outside of MoMA cared about us, everyone walked right in and nobody wanted to hear about women, about feminism"."—Interview Magazine
“curator Kynaston McShine remarked offhandedly that "any artist who wasn't in the show should rethink his career". According to the Guerrilla girls, "That was the 'aha!' moment: it was so obvious that there had to be a better way, a more media savvy, more contemporary way to get through to people."—Interview Magazine
When asked how many members they had in 1995 they replied:"We don't have any idea. We secretly suspect that all women are born Guerrilla Girls. It's just a question of helping them discover it. For sure, thousands; probably, hundreds of thousands; maybe, millions."—Interview Magazine
“Artists should stop making art only for the one percent and start making some art for the rest of us. That means changing everything: galleries, museums, collectors, critics, dealers—maybe even friends and lovers. That means making some cheap art that everyone can own—like books, music, and films.”—Interview Magazine
“In the beginning, we worked in an atmosphere of disbelief: No one wanted to think the art world was anything less than a meritocracy. The kind of scrutiny applied to other fields was unwelcome. Now, it’s a no-brainer.”—Interview Magazine
“You can’t write the history of a culture without all its voices. No curator or dealer wants to be considered a Neanderthal for not showing women or artists of color. We hope it stays that way.”—Interview Magazine
“With a few token exceptions, white guys still get most of the big money, and for sure the biggest opportunities.” —Interview Magazine
What we don’t see on the resumes we review or the job descriptions we want is the litany of emotional entanglements we bring to our roles, uninvited, to the team and organizations we work in. Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves in the presence of setbacks. In short, those who learn lead.
Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.