Nikki Craft’s Aesthetic Feminist Activism

Abstract

One of the conditions for misogynic genders to be settled in society consists on the existence of a compulsive dominant and universal heterosexual cultural production, which establishes clearly differentiated representation principles of both sexes. These representation principles tend to favour more the man, disregarding the woman. We consider that culture production gives origin to reproduction processes, which means that, in practical terms, the representation of signs, codes, values, and behaviors associated to the sexes are potentially materialized in societies by both men and women. This has been one battle that several women have embraced after the second wave of the feminist movement, namely by the most radical wing. In this battle it tries to claim for new paradigms regarding gender cultural conventions. In this study we propose to analyze some of the campaigns developed by Nikki Craft, a radical North-American feminist who, in the 70s and 80s, would organize and/or lead several protests in public spaces in some cities around the United States. This analysis intends to clarify the motivations and strategies taken by this feminist, whose activisms aimed at several cultural structures (the art world, beauty institutions, and the pornographic industry) that legitimate representations harmful to women.