i am sassa

Q: What’s better than an old white guy in a red suit sneaking down your chimney at night to leave presents?

A: A bunch of women artists in gorilla masks sneaking around the city at night dismantling the patriarchy, of course!

Meet the Guerilla Girls. They are a completely anonymous and completely badass bunch of women who joined together in 1985 to fight against the SHOCKING level of sexism, corruption, and greed in the art world. They name themselves after dead women artists…seriously, I watched an hour-long lecture today by a woman in a gorilla mask who was introduced as Frida Kahlo. From the start, they have used statistics and facts, humor, and shocking imagery to bring truly appalling inequalities to light. My personal favorite is their 1989 poster, “Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get Into the Met Museum?”. It combined appropriated museum imagery with this horrifying fact: Less than 5% of the artists in the modern art sections are women, but 89% of the nudes are female.

Sadly, the numbers haven’t changed a whole hell of a lot. In 1985, out of four major art museums in New York City, there was LITERALLY ONLY ONE solo exhibition by a female artist. Thirty years later in 2015, those same four museums hosted a total of 5 one-woman shows. It’s absurd, isn’t it? When I was in art school, I had the crazy idea that this kind of thing didn’t exist in the progressive world of art, and the Guerilla Girls introduced me to the truth. I went on to teach about them every year as a high school teacher. and my students were fascinated by them, probably for the same reason lots of people are: their anonymity WORKS. No one knows who any of them are. There have been 55 members over the years, and some of them have stuck around for decades. They use anonymity to their advantage. It keeps the focus on the issues rather than on them, and the mystery calls attention to their causes.

They might also use those masks because they do some seriously crazy stuff. They have done over 100 street projects all over the world. They plaster giant posters on the sides of buildings and sticker bomb entire cities. They use serious attention-getting imagery and impeccable graphic design with overlaid text that does not hesitate to call out very specific businesses and people on their bullshit. In 2015, they projected a giant image onto the front of the Whitney Museum in New York City at night that called out income inequality and the “hijacking of art” by the super rich. As they started to become more famous, big museums wanted to host them for shows, and some of them regretted it. If those same museums hadn’t changed their ways, the Guerilla Girls attacked their discriminatory practices right on their own gallery walls.

The Guerilla Girls have not let up an inch in 35 years. In fact, they’ve expanded. They don’t just fight against inequality, bias, and corruption in the art world anymore. They are often seen targeting the film industry and politics. Guerilla Girls, if you are reading this, I’d die to be one of you. I’m loyal and I can keep a secret. I have a getaway motorcycle. I even have my own mask. Call me.

Thank you, Guerilla Girls.