My taxonomy is about women’s wearing in religion. I collect and zoom in these photos which are from MET, MoMA, the Museum of the City of New York, and an Islamic street in Queens. Women’s clothing from Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are included.
2o Questions:
1.In Islamic regions, is there an association between different degrees of covering body and women’s social status?
2.Will women wear make up on when they wear Burqa?
3.Why the habit that is worn by Catholic nuns is considered as a symbol of modesty and purity, however the headscarf worn by Islamic women in some regions is considered as an oppression?
4.What percentage of islamic female wear face-covering clothing of their own free will? Is it high or low?
5.Why do Catholic nuns and some women in church wear veils and habits as a sign of modesty but man do not need to wear?
6.What kind of things will make islamic women wear face-covering clothing on their own initiative? Is it the judgement from others?
7.What percentage of islamic women living in city wear face-covering clothing everyday, compared to countryside?
8.If their is a majority of women wear face-covering clothing in a islamic country, the clothes for them is a protection or compromise, or both?
9.Why in Bible it is written like “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.” ? Is it sexist?
10.If an islamic woman travel to or live in a country without strong religious atmosphere, will she still wear headscarf?
11.When an islamic women has a daughter, will she teach the daughter to break the rules of wearing headscarf everyday, or what will she explain to her daughter about the reason of why women have to wear headscarf everyday?
12.As members of religious community, why Buddhist nuns’ clothes seldom using black color, however Catholic nun and female muslim’s clothes lots of times are black?
13.Why are most of women characters in religious paintings and bible paintings holding a baby, even the virgin with the child? Is that being a mother the only role of women？
14.My mind blew up when I saw a model wearing niqab, a headscarf only showing eyes, in the clothing store (the shop owner didn’t allow me to take some pictures in the store)and saw a woman wearing it on street. I feel shocked and submissive when I saw the only eyes staring at me. The pair of eyes is so powerful that it made me start questioning myself. Is the religion give the power of niqab that make me feel shocked, or the visual effect of the image of only showing eyes itself?
15.When I searched the clothing of nun, I saw several fashion images wearing nun’s clothing, and they were all about sexual things? Why are the nuns, the symbol of chastity, related to lust in those artworks?
16.I went to a street in Queens that has strong islamic atmosphere in order to find islamic clothing stores. However, lots of stores are closed and for rent. One of the stores that selling religious clothing is even not a specific clothing store, but a service shop for insurance and traveling. What’s the current status of female muslim in New York?
17.Why do Islamic women in some religion need to wear masks and long gloves when they already wear niqab that cover the whole body?
18.Why don’t Muslim men need to wear niqab?
19. What does the color choice of bright orange of Buddhism clothing means?
20.Do the niqab worn by Muslim women represents a lack of free love in islamic religions?
Digging Deeper Into Your Taxonomy (bridge 3 part II)
“Add to the LP post for your completed Taxonomy and answer the following questions:
- What location did you visit for your visual research and what did you find?
- How did the locations (museum/gallery/etc.) you visited expand/broaden/deepen your understanding of your topic? (this could be visual, contextual, historical, material based, etc.)
- List the symbols, metaphors and visual references you put in your taxonomy and explain how/why they are relevant/important to your topic.
- What did you learn from Monday’s critique about your taxonomy that was new or helpful?”
I collected these photos from MET, MoMA, the Museum of the City of New York, and an Islamic street in Queens. In museums, I focused on the female religious clothings appeared in oil paintings and photographs.
There are lots of paintings about bible story in museums which broadened my understanding of Christian clothing which worn by nuns and sisters. And I found out that female roles in bible paintings most of time are holding a baby. Also, when I went to visited the real muslim clothing store, it is different from what I expected before. Lots of clothing stores are already closed or for rent. One of the stores that selling religious clothing is even not a specific clothing store, but a service shop for insurance and traveling. And most of the shop owner didn’t allow me to take photos.
I think the mask, black gloves, niqab and burqa that I put in my taxonomy are symbols of anonymity and hiding, escaping. Especially when they were mostly worn by women, the original meaning of these scarf and accessories changed as a gender specific wearing which related to my theme about gender.
Bo in our group mentioned that these religious clothing have a common that they all cover a big part of female body parts. And Renwei stated that this taxonomy shows how religion restrict women from clothing aspects. However Buddhism clothing appear to be more gender neutral. Their opinions went deeper about my topic of female religious clothing which help me a lot in further research.
