APA Western Division
Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory
Other Academic Areas
PhilPapers Editorships
Feminist Aesthetics
  •  4291
    Feminism and Aesthetics
    In Kittay Eva Feder & Martín Alcoff Linda (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.
    This chapter presents an overview of feminism and aesthetics in the 2007 Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy edited by Linda Martin Alcoff and Eva Feder Kittay. Sections cover the topics of distinguishing aesthetics and philosophy of art, bringing feminist theory into aesthetics, developing feminist challenges to aesthetics, the role of women artists in feminist aesthetics, feminist philosophers reflect on self-portraiture and women as objects of beauty, and future developments.
  •  2752
    Feminist art epistemologies (FAEs) greatly aid the understanding of feminist art, particularly when they serve to illuminate the hidden meanings of an artist's intent. The success of parodic imagery produced by feminist artists (feminist visual parodies, FVPs) necessarily depends upon a viewer's recognition of the original work of art created by a male artist and the realization of the parodist's intent to ridicule and satirize. As Brand shows in this essay, such recognition and realization cons…Read more
  •  2104
    Beauty Matters (edited book)
    Indiana University Press. 2000.
    Beauty has captured human interest since before Plato, but how, why, and to whom does beauty matter in today's world? Whose standard of beauty motivates African Americans to straighten their hair? What inspires beauty queens to measure up as flawless objects for the male gaze? Why does a French performance artist use cosmetic surgery to remake her face into a composite of the master painters' version of beauty? How does beauty culture perceive the disabled body? Is the constant effort to remain …Read more
  •  1348
    The Role of Luck in Originality and Creativity
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73 (1): 31-55. 2015.
    In this article I explore the concept of originality from several viewpoints. Within the world of printmaking, I show that while print dealers may draw attention to originality in order to enhance economic value, artists emphasize the aesthetic value of a work based on the freedom to express artistic intent and to experiment with techniques of the medium. Within the worlds of philosophy and to some extent, psychology, “originality” has been misleadingly tied to the notions of “creativity” and “g…Read more
  •  1274
    Surface and Deep Interpretation
    with Myles Brand
    In Rollins Mark (ed.), Danto and His Critics, Second Edition, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 69-83. 2012.
    Arthur C. Danto proposes a complex and controversial relationship between surface and deep interpretations in The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art (1986). We detail the analogy between understanding human actions and interpreting works of art that both develops a motivation for Danto's view and clarifies it. We object to the most plausible version of content dependency among surface and deep interpretations and in so doing, we also clarify the way in which an interpretation is constitutiv…Read more
  •  1185
    Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics (edited book)
    Pennsylvania State University Press. 1995.
    Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics takes a fresh look at the history of aesthetics and at current debates within the philosophy of art by exploring the ways in which gender informs notions of art and creativity, evaluation and interpretation, and concepts of aesthetic value. Multiple intellectual traditions have formed this field, and the discussions herein range from consideration of eighteenth century legacies of ideas about taste, beauty, and sublimity to debates about the relevance of post…Read more
  •  1111
    Introduction: Feminism and Aesthetics
    with Mary Devereaux
    Hypatia 18 (4). 2003.
    This special issue of HYPATIA: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy entitled "Women, Art, and Aesthetics" highlights the expanded range of topics at center stage in feminist philosophical inquiry to date (2003): recontextualizing women artists (essays by Patricia Locke, Eleanor Heartney, and Michelle Meagher), bodies and beauty (Ann J. Cahill, Sheila Lintott, Janell Hobson, Richard Shusterman, Joanna Frueh), art, ethics, politics, law (A. W. Eaton, Amy Mullin, L. Ryan Musgrave, Teresa Winterhalter),…Read more
  •  1062
    Misleading Aesthetic Norms of Beauty: Perceptual Sexism in Elite Women's Sports
    In Sherri Irvin (ed.), Body Aesthetics, Oxford University Press. pp. 192-221. 2016.
    This essay is about the history of challenges that women in elite sports have faced with respect to their gender identity within a society that perpetuates misleading aesthetic norms of beauty; it is a history fraught with controversy and injustice. . . . We recommend both the acknowledgment within the realm of elite sport of perceptual sexism based on misleading aesthetic norms of beauty, and a way of correcting such erroneous categorization that allows athletes the autonomy and agency to choo…Read more
  •  885
    Definitions of Art, by Stephen Davies (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54 (2): 492-494. 1994.
    Davies presents the reader with a sterling review of the literature--the recent history of the interest in defining "art" through the writings of Anglo-American philosophers that follow Morris Weitz' well-known 1956 essay, "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics"--and a stimulating discussion of the role of conventions in the making and appreciating of contemporary art. His emphasis on the social nature of art leads one to wonder how other recent inquiries into the multilayered contextually of the art…Read more
  •  755
    Lord, Lewis, and the Institutional Theory of Art
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 40 (3): 309-314. 1981.
    In "Convention and Dickie's Institutional Theory" (British Journal of Aesthetics 1980), Catherine Lord maintains the following thesis: (L) If a work of art is defined as institutional and conventional, then the definition precludes the freedom and creativity associated with art. Lord also maintains that the antecedent of this conditional is false. In this note, I argue that (i) certain confusions and assumptions prevent Lord from showing the antecedent is false, and (ii) even if the antecedent…Read more
  •  676
    Beauty Unlimited (edited book)
    Indiana University Press. 2013.
    Emphasizing the human body in all of its forms, Beauty Unlimited expands the boundaries of what is meant by beauty both geographically and aesthetically. Peg Zeglin Brand and an international group of contributors interrogate the body and the meaning of physical beauty in this multidisciplinary volume. This striking and provocative book explores the history of bodily beautification; the physicality of socially or culturally determined choices of beautification; the interplay of gender, race, cla…Read more
  •  665
    The Aesthetics of Childbirth
    with Paula Granger
    In Sheila Lintott & Maureen Sander-Staudt (eds.), Philosophical Inquiries into Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Mothering: Maternal Subjects, Routledge. pp. 215-236. 2012.
    Images abound of women throughout the ages engaging in various activities. But why are there so few representations of childbirth in visual art? Feminist artist Judy Chicago once suggested that depictions of women giving birth do not commonly occur in Western culture but can be found in other contexts such as pre-Columbian art or societies previously considered "primitive." Chicago's own exploration of the theme resulted in the creation of The Birth Project (1980-85): an unprecedented series of …Read more
  •  613
    Painting the Difference: Sex and Spectator in Modern Art
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65 (2): 244-246. 2007.
    British art historian Charles Harrison presumes the existence of a patriarchal world with power in the hands of men who dominate the representation of women and femininity. He applauds the ground-breaking work of feminist theorists who have questioned this imbalance of power since the 1970s. He stops short, however, of accepting their claims that all women have been represented by male artists as images of “utter passivity” (p. 4), routinely reduced by the male gaze to the status of exploited s…Read more
  •  439
    Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art (review)
    College Art Association Reviews. 2007.
    College Art Association Review of Nehemas' 2007 book on beauty that challenges his exclusion of consideration of issues of gender, i.e., I ask the questions, "whose beauty?" and "beauty for whom?"
  •  435
    How Beauty Matters
    In David Goldblatt & Stephanie Patridge (eds.), Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts, Routledge. pp. 94-97. 2017.
    How do we view, understand and appreciate a complex and challenging work of visual art such as Leon Mostovoy's Transfigure and how, in our encounter with it, does beauty matter? Transfigure Project--a 2013 book, film and photographic installation that is now also an interactive website--is "a project of corporal self-expression, presented as an experimental, visual feast" by which 'transfigure' means "to transform into something more beautiful or elevated." Photographs of fifty nude trans-identi…Read more
  •  407
    Surface Interpretation: Reply to Leddy
    with Peg Zeglin Brand and Myles Brand
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 57 (4): 463-465. 1999.
    In our paper "Surface and Deep Interpretation," we sought to provide detail and texture to Arthur Danto's views on interpretation, thereby explicating and defending them (as published in Mark Rollins, ed., Danto and His Critics (Blackwell, originally published 1993; second edition 2012). Leddy objects to our views; in the end, Danto's view, given our explication of it, remains tenable.
  •  397
    Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal offers a unique approach to an old topic, that of human beauty, written by an ethicist specializing in global ethics who considers herself "an applied philosopher" (14). It seems to be written primarily for ethicists and not--of preferred interest to this reviewer--for aestheticians, that is, those who routinely write about the value of the complex notion of beauty and its many permutations that involve ethics. . . . Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal i…Read more
  •  373
    Glaring Omissions in Traditional Theories of Art
    In Cahn Steven (ed.), Philosophy for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Reader, Oxford University Press. pp. 799-813. 2002.
    I investigate the role of feminist theorizing in relation to traditionally-based aesthetics. Feminist artworks have arisen within the context of a patriarchal Artworld dominated for thousands of years by male artists, critics, theorists, and philosophers. I look at the history of that context as it impacts philosophical theorizing by pinpointing the narrow range of the paradigms used in defining “art.” I test the plausibility of Danto’s After the End of Art vision of a post-historical, pluralist…Read more
  •  367
    Camus's The Plague: Philosophical Perspectives (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2023.
    _La Peste_, originally published in 1947 by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Albert Camus, chronicles the progression of deadly bubonic plague as it spreads through the quarantined Algerian city of Oran. While most discussions of fictional examples within aesthetics are either historical or hypothetical, Camus offers an example of "pestilence fiction." Camus chose fiction to convey facts--about plagues in the past, his own bout with tuberculosis at age seventeen, living under quarantine away from …Read more
  •  341
    Introduction
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48 (4): 277-280. 1990.
    This is the co-authored--with Carolyn Korsmeyer--Introduction to the first published feminist scholarship in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Volume 48, Number 4, Fall 1990). Contributors included Hilde Hein, Paul Mattick, Jr., Timothy Gould, Joanne B. Waugh, Joseph Margolis, Mary Devereaux, Noel Carroll, Flo Leibowitz, Anita Silvers, Elizabeth Ann Dobie, Renee Cox, and Ellen Handler Spitz. All essays were subsequently published in an expanded book version entitled, Feminism and Trad…Read more
  •  324
    Feminist Criticism: On Disturbatory Art and Beauty
    In Jonathan Gilmore & Lydia Goehr (eds.), A Companion to Arthur C. Danto, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 344-353. 2022.
    Arthur C. Danto, philosopher and art critic for The Nation from 1984-2009, offered interpretations of artworks by a wide array of artists, including Eva Hesse, Judy Chicago, and Cindy Sherman, whose "disturbatory" works were either ignored or denounced by mainstream critics at the time. Danto's championing of feminist art was deliberate and delightful; he openly endorsed the Guerilla Girls! His feminist art critical writings ultimately shaped the early development of what has come to be known as…Read more
  •  299
    The Introduction provides a historical and literary context for the examination of Albert Camus’s 1947 fictional novel, The Plague, to suggest its relevance to our own lived experiences of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic that brought the routines and expectations of our normal, daily lives to an unprecedented halt. Details of Camus’s life and work inform our reading of the narrative that give rise to multiple interpretations as well as intriguing questions of scholarly inquiry: How realistic are the …Read more
  •  296
    VIRTUAL BEAUTY: Orlan and Morimura
    L and B (Lier En Boog) 16 92-104. 2001.
    This essay offers some thoughts on the editors' (Annette w. Balkema and Henk Slager) project "Exploding Aesthetics" with the goal of extending aesthetics based on a specific type of artistic output. Both artists--Orlan and Morimura--have already expanded the normal parameters of artistic inquiry and the resulting critical discourse. As an aesthetician, I merely offer some elaboration and philosophical backdrop to their creative enterprise. They constitute the paradigm of the avant-garde artist e…Read more
  •  295
    The Beauty of the Game
    with Myles Brand
    In Jerry Walls (ed.), Basketball and Philosophy, The University Press of Kentucky. pp. 94-103. 2007.
    Imagine a deep philosophical conversation about a beautiful shot by a college player in a Final Four basketball game!
  •  292
    Letters to the Editor
    with Myles Brand, G. E. M. Anscombe, Donald Davidson, John M. Dolan, Peter T. Geach, Thomas Nagel, Barry R. Gross, Nebojsa Kujundzic, Jon K. Mills, Richard J. McGowan, Jennifer Uleman, John D. Musselman, James S. Stramel, and Parker English
    Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 69 (2). 1995.
    Co-authored letter to the APA to take a lead role in the recognition of teaching in the classroom, based on the participation in an interdisciplinary Conference on the Role of Advocacy in the Classroom back in 1995. At the time of this writing, the late Myles Brand was the President of Indiana University and a member of the IU Department of Philosophy.
  •  286
    Review of New Feminist Art Criticism by Katy Deepwell (review)
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55 (3): 344-345. 1997.
    Katy Deepwell calls for a vital and visible "new" feminist criticism in 1997 amidst a pessimistic overview of the state of feminist art and criticism in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. As an update to this review, I note that Deepwell took decisive and effective action on her pessimism and for the past twenty years (as of this writing in July 2017) created an online feminist journal--n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal--that has published over 550 articles by 400 writers and artists fro…Read more
  •  275
    Beauvoir maintains a unified "compromise theory" of aesthetics throughout her ethics, feminism, and fiction that portrays the conundrum that every artist faces -- an impasse that sets action against inaction, politics against culture. Beauvoir's theory of art in The Mandarins, aided by an analysis of women's oppression in The Second Sex, advocates art that keeps past events alive in the present and in so doing, changes even the tragic into the life affirming. Beauvoir lauds artists who, even in …Read more
  •  254
    Changing Perceptions of Beautiful Bodies: The Athletic Agency Model
    In Andrew Edgar & William Morgan (eds.), Somaesthetics and Sport, Brill. pp. 85-113. 2022.
    I consider what draws us to perceiving beautiful bodies in art and athletics--repeatedly and over time--that is informed by viewers' changing perceptions derived from recent publications in fashion and sport, the philosophy of sport, feminist film theory and aesthetics under the ever-expanding umbrella of somaesthetics. This paper won the American Society for Aesthetics 2023 Somaesthetics Prize.
  •  245
    Symposium: Beauty Matters
    Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 57 (1): 1-10. 1999.
    The "Introduction" to "Symposium: Beauty Matters" in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Winter 1999), pages 1-10, is presented here. Abstract: The point of this symposium is to locate one trajectory of the new wave of discussions about beauty beyond the customary confines of analytic aesthetics and to situate it at the intersection of aesthetics, ethics, social-political philosophy, and cultural criticism. The three essays that follow, authored by Marcia Muelder Eaton,…Read more
  •  207
    Beauty as Pride: A Function of Agency
    APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine 2 (10): 5-9. 2011.
    This paper (presented along with others at an APA session with the late Dr. Anita Silvers commenting) explores and engages a mode of defiant challenges to the traditional, able-bodied standard of female beauty evidenced throughout the history of art as portrayed by the controversial photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin. Witkin's images of Ann Millett-Gallant, author of the book, The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art, "visualize disability" as they explore issues in agency, otherness, and the medical …Read more