After an afternoon session with Ms. Jean Claire Dy, Chair of the University Gender Committee and a Creative Writing Program faculty member, who discussed with them the history and concepts of feminism and gender studies, the CL 122 (Critical Approaches to Literature II) class took the challenge of translating feminist concepts into a one-day exhibit last 14 March 2008 at the CHSS Exhibit Hall.
Along the hallway outside the exhibit area, they put up a sign and cutouts of what they referred to as the different stages a woman goes through in her life. But on the glass door that opened into the exhibit hall, they put up the women’s symbol.
On the right wall as one enters the exhibit area, the class put up pictures of women from the village that surrounds the campus. The students talked with and took pictures of these women to illustrate how women triumphs over their daily struggle to transcend their economic lot, their multiple burdens, and their assertions of identity.
By the windows, the students put up some poetry written by women. They included works by Gabriela Mistral, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, and Sylvia Plath. If they had more time, perhaps they would have put up poetry written by Filipino women writing in English and in the different Philippine languages.
The women really put their hearts into the task (even hanging out in the exhibit hall almost the whole day as you can see in the pictures above), while the men argued with them about what poems to display and how to arrange them. Ultimately they arrived at a compromise. And the compromise included the figure below. The male gaze?
