As Freud continued to develop his theories, he continued to insist that women were men without penises, coining the term ‘penis envy’. Hysteria was a catch-all title for the mental illness of female disobedience.
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His work began by ‘studying’ a fabricated mental illness that happened to plague only women, called hysteria. Sigmund Freud made many contributions to the field of psychology, but he was at heart a misogynist. Hans Bellmer, Self-Portrait with Doll, 1934, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection, © Hans Bellmer Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris Freudian psychology San Francisco Museum of Art put the effect of the work perfectly, “Bellmer’s work reflects both desire and loathing for the female body - a classic surrealist conflict” He would pose the lifesize nude doll in a variety of positions and environments, often separating limbs and reorganizing body parts. One pertinent example is Hans Bellmer’s work with La Poupee, or ‘the doll’¹. Many surrealist works of art explored the disfigurement, dismemberment, and severing of the female form. “Bellmer’s work reflects both desire and loathing for the female body - a classic surrealist conflict.” - JSTOR Hans Bellmer’s Dolls These fraternity-like social structures keep opportunity and success within the group of elite men, pushing each other to the top and pushing outsiders into the realm of obscurity. When I say male-dominated, I mean the exclusive ‘boys club’ of surrealism, along with many other famous art movements. There were many female surrealist artists during the time, the most famous being Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, but there were dozens more who were written out of the historical canon by their male counterparts. To say surrealism was male-dominated would be an understatement. Keep in mind that this is my interpretation, amongst many other interpretations that you can explore online. This is a men’s only dinner party, except, of course, for one female: the perfect female she exists only to satisfy the fantastical desires of the men around her. She is the pig with an apple in its mouth. I imagine the portraits of the artists to be at a dinner table, with the naked, vulnerable woman in the center like the main course. I interpret this as a visual representation of the male projection of female fantasy. Their eyes are closed and their heads all face forward. The painting reads je ne vois pas la femme cachée dans la forêt, which translated from French to English, reads “I do not see the woman hiding in the forest.” The painting is surrounded by 16 photographic portraits of male surrealist artists, including Salvator Dali, Max Ernst, and André Breton. It featured a painting by René Magritte of a nude woman looking away. In 1929, La Revolution Surréaliste published a mixed-media collage⁶. So what do Elizabeth Short, George Hodel, and Surrealism have to do with each other? Surrealist roots in misogyny When it comes to the work of doctor and socialite George Hodel, it explores the world of nightmares. Influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories on unconsciousness, Surrealism explores the world of dreams.
BLACK DAHLIA MURDER PAINT IT BLACK FULL
The story is nonsensical but full of potential interpretation and symbolism. A man wakes up for work one day and discovers that he has transformed into a human-sized cockroach. Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a prime example of a surrealist narrative.
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Surrealist writing rose to popularity, too, including the work of André Breton, Albert Camus, and Franz Kafka. Surrealism is an art movement that began after dadaism in the 1920s, spearheaded by artists Salvator Dali, Man Ray, René Magritte, and Max Ernst. Short’s black hair and dark fashion sense landed her the title “The Black Dahlia,” and decades later, the nickname is still uttered more than her actual name. Once beautiful and young, her body was found days later, dismembered and mutilated like no other murder in American History.
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In 1947, aspiring actress Elizabeth Short disappeared. Image: Man Ray, Lover’s Lips, 1933 / Flickr, CC BY 2.0