Seeing Gender

The standing woman shows off a hanging scroll

of a male kabuki actor playing a female role

as her companions admire it.

What does the substitution of women for the male subjects in this traditional theme tell us about social gender roles and assumptions in the artist Toyoharu’s time? Was the artist’s intent subversive, voyeuristic, or aspirational?

In this Balinese sculpture, King Salya and his wife Satyawati are intertwined

as Salya clutches his wife’s breast and wraps his leg around her waist, a gesture commonly understood in Balinese narratives to be a sign of love.

Both figures have delicate, raised eyebrows and narrow, upward-angled eyes, features that mirror those of traditional characters in wayang kulit (Indonesian puppet-shadow plays).

Salya wears the typical long earrings of a male figure and Satyawati wears ear plugs common for a female.

Their sharply rendered arms and decorative costumes are evocative of the postures and dress of Balinese dancers.

Continuing the practices associating bodily or natural symbols with ideas of gender, contemporary artists create or reuse gendered symbols that speak to them personally.

The painting by Pinaree Sanpitak depicts flower motifs resembling female genitalia

along with forms that she calls “breast clouds.”

Since giving birth, the artist has used the female body, especially the breast, to represent herself and symbolize motherhood, womanhood, and femininity.

This print by Wang Jianshan portrays Miao (Hmong) women at the Sisters’ Meal Festival, an annual event in the artist’s home province, Guizhou, China.

The women, garbed with heavy jewelry made of silver and gold in the shapes of discs and crescents, choose partners while celebrating the arrival of spring.

Some Miao believe that silver is a symbol of light that dispels evil spirits and bestows wealth and beauty.

Their long hair braided together creates an inseparable link between them and is reminiscent of an organic form in nature.

The pair face away from the camera, concealing their identity and gender, leaving the viewer to interpret the figures, who appear nearly identical in matching white tops.

But the image can also be read as a double self-portrait, since it depicts the artists whose partnership and marriage are integral to their artwork and artistic practice.

In contrast to the gender ambiguity at work in Untitled, No. 25, the
polarities between men and women are at the heart of A Pair, a work by artist Kim Jeeun.

Kim fashioned traditional Korean shoes for men (in black)

and women (in white) out of mulberry paper, inspired by gomusin shoes popularized in Korea following the Japanese colonial period.

According to Kim, “I placed these two shoes next to each other but facing in opposite directions. I am questioning the definition of ‘pair.’”

Both works employ black-and-white imagery, which becomes symbolic in A Pair as the artist invites a deeper conversation about the dichotomy of male and female.

The following paintings illustrate the varied ways in which artists across Asia depict gendered interactions such as courtship. Physical gestures and motifs such as architectural details and weather also create a sense of drama in these interactions.

In this scene, a woman braves a storm to meet her lover. Her body twists as she moves toward the princely figure, resting under a veranda.

She touches his foot, suggesting their intimacy.

Their union is also symbolized by the birds and the thunderous rain.

This sculpture and shrine (to follow) demonstrate a figural and emblematic manifestation of the composite form of Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati.

The figure Ardhanarishvara (translated as “the Lord that is half-female”) is split vertically down the middle

with Shiva on the viewer’s left

and his consort Parvati on the right.

The two deities share similar facial features and jewelry ornaments,

but their gender difference is signaled by Parvati’s elaborate hairstyle,

sensual breast,

and curvaceous hip.

The two genders, while distinctly different, are indivisible and inherently one, as represented in the androgynous incarnation of Ardhanarishvara.

In the bejeweled miniature shrine,

the linga (pillar)

and the yoni (lipped disk and base)

symbolize male and female regenerative principles, respectively.

Pointing to truth beyond the physical and ephemeral forms of the world, the linga is an abstract representation of the supreme being Shiva that symbolizes his generative power and creative ability.

The yoni is emblematic of Parvati and her source of life, and together with the linga they complete one another in an eternal, dynamic union that represents the creation and regeneration of all existence.

In some schools of Indian philosophy, the cosmic universe is created from male and female principles (purusha and prakriti), the unity of two seemingly paradoxical forces.

Opposite energies—like male and female, active and receptive, Absolute and Infinite—are interconnected and interdependent. In their totality, the masculine and the feminine essences are represented as inseparable and together convey harmony, unity, and wholeness.

The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin in China, Kannon in Japan, or Chenrezig in Tibet) is a prominent Buddhist deity whose gender has been represented differently across time, culture, and geography.

Worshiped by all strata of society, the bodhisattva of compassion has had wide appeal, as the bodhisattva vowed to save all beings from the torments of endless rebirth.

The gilded bronze Chenrezig is from Tibet, which received Buddhist teachings as early as the sixth century. In Tibetan Buddhism, Chenrezig is typically portrayed as male

and is seated here holding a wish-fulfilling jewel.

Buddhist teachings were disseminated to Japan by way of China and Korea around the mid-sixth century. Early representations of Kannon were depicted as either asexual or with masculine traits.

With a scarf draped over one shoulder, the wooden Kannon here reveals a bare, strapping chest, hinting at masculine traits.

From the Tang dynasty (618—907), portrayals of Guanyin in China began to appear in soft, delicate forms that were perceived as female.

The white-robed porcelain Guanyin sits gracefully with her dainty hand resting on her knee, and most of her body is covered with a flowing robe.

Known as the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin came to be associated with fertility and child-bearing.

In Buddhist text, bodhisattvas transcend gender distinctions; however, in their visual representation, divinity and compassion have been personified, indigenized, and gendered through elements such as clothing, posture, and ornament.

These variants compel us to think about the relationship between the deity and devotee and how we imagine attributes like compassion and mercy.