Oct 1, 2023

The Angry Girl


The highlight of the month is a drawing from the Redstocking Movement’s archive, which is preserved at The Women's History Archives. The movement had a strong visual component and used images purposefully in their fight for equality. They used drawings made by members of the Redstockings as well as found materials such as cut-outs from foreign magazines.

This drawing, known informally as ‘The Angry Girl’, is an example of a found drawing that appeared repeatedly throughout the publications of the Redstockings. It appeared in various forms, sometimes large on A4 pages, and sometimes very small, somewhere in a corner on the page of the Forvitin Rauð magazine. It is an arresting and strong drawing, in which the girl stands bold and determined. The sharp lines in her face, marked by strong eyebrows and a frown express her displeasure with the current state of affairs. She holds the venus symbol the way someone would hold a club, and even though she is angry and the drawing might be called aggressive - it is obvious she is not the aggressor, but is instead here to defend.

One way to use found images is to show solidarity, and ‘the Angry Girl’ is precisely such an image. It was a cut-out from a French magazine. The image is borrowed from another publication in another country to fight the same cause in a new context.

Karólína Rós Ólafsdóttir and Boaz Yosef Friedman researched drawings of the Redstocking movement this summer in collaboration with The Women's History Archives and the Icelandic Drawing Center. The project was supported by Rannís Student Innovation Fund.

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