Twisted Sisters: Women's Comix and Cultural Action

Abstract

My thesis examines the experiences of artists involved in two of the seminal all-women underground anthologies, Wimmen’s Comix (1972-1992) and Tits & Clits (1972-1987). By examining the differences in attitudes about art as a form of political expression, political viewpoints, artistic visions, and career paths and ambitions within and across the involved in Wimmen’s Comix and Tits & Clits, between the two generations of artists in Wimmen’s Comix, I aim to illuminate how and when artists perceive themselves to be participating in what I term “cultural action.” Drawing on the work of “new social movement scholars” like Alberto Melucci (1980,1995), I define cultural action as the fighting of “political” battles on “cultural” grounds, like the production of visual art. I critique theories which maintain a rigid division between cultural action and political or organization action by schematizing art as an instrument for other forms of action. I suggest instead that cultural action and political action are better imagined as interwoven social processes in which artists, as cultural actors, draw upon both their political and artistic repertoires in the expressive act of art production. I build on theories of art production as a social process imbued with political meaning articulated by Bourdieu (1983) and Becker (1982) to examine how subjective analyses of cultural action are related to the artistic field and art world in which artists carry out their work. I further call attention to the difficulties in reconciling individual artistic and political motivations with collective frameworks for cultural action.