by Lili Pintea-Reed
Part of the supression of women has been the pervasive lie that women lack visual-spatial skills. This is partially based on the fact that young boys and young girls have differential developmemt in verbal and spatial skills at very young ages. Young boys stack blocks and build structures more often then young girls. Young girls have better fine motor control at an early age as evidenced by superior hand writing and skill at other fine tasks. Most parents of young children notice these things.
However, by the teens these differences even out. When one a standard IQ test is administered, there is a built in assumption that gifted people of either gender have both finely developed verbal skills and spatial abilities. They literally have all their wits about them, being both right and left brained. That having full command of both modalities gives us survival advantage seems obvious.
In most cultures the women construct the shelters in which people live and cloth their families. They do all this simply "by eye," or the use of body-based measuring. There are literally thousands, perhaps millions, of examples of textile art created by women.
In cultures where women were to focus attention on home and family textiles became thier chief mode of artistic expression. Perhaps it is not surprising that the most wonderful textiles are those made by women in cultures where they are the most oppressed, or where conventional art was the craft of men.
Below are a list of sites from around the world which demonstrate some of the wonderful artistis talent of women from all over the world.
Textile Sites
Enjoy the experience of art from some of our sisters from around the world. There are many more to view all over the NET. Add some to your favorites.
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