"What is interesting, is that the Frida Kahlo venerated by American feminists is a very different Frida Kahlo to the one people learn about in Mexico, in the Chicano community. In her country, she is recognized as an important artist and a key figure in revolutionary politics of early 20th century Mexico. Her communist affiliations are made very clear. Her relationship with Trotsky is underscored. All her political activities with Diego Rivera are constantly emphasized. The connection between her art and her politics is always made. When Chicana artists became interested in Frida Kahlo in the ‘70s and started organizing homages, they made the connection between her artistic project and theirs because they too were searching for an aesthetic compliment to a political view that was radical and emancipatory. But when the Euro-American feminists latch onto Frida Kahlo in the early ‘80s and when the American mainstream caught on to her, she was transformed into a figure of suffering. I am very critical of that form of appropriation."
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Coco Fusco (via plastickitten)
American feminists also rarely talk about her mode of dress as revolutionary in and of itself. It gets talked about as exotic and Mexican and unique, but in Mexico it’s always made very clear that she dressed the way she did as an expression of cultural pride that was not widely acceptable for her class and time. Her dress was revolutionary, anti-imperialist, and helped launch a resurgence of pride and awareness of Mexican culture that had been subjugated by centuries of imperialism.
(via pretended)
AKA why did it take me taking a class on the Russian revolution to learn about Kahlo’s politics?
(via monasequedaistemporarlyinhiding)
(via tits-on-a-tlacuache)
