Chavez, Lilibeth (Lili)

 Hello all! My name is Lilibeth Chavez, but my preferred name is Lili. My pronouns are she/her/hers and I am a fourth year political science major with a minor in Chicanx studies pursuing a career in law. During my time at UCLA I have focused the bulk of my course load for my Chicanx minor mainly on the intertwine of law and Chicanx studies, never really delving into physical manifestations of Chicanx representation through art. It wasn't until this past spring quarter when I took a class on the music of Latin America that I realized how much more different mediums of art tell of sociological and legal issues I had been studying from books. As an aspiring lawyer, understanding mindsets, intentions, and thought processes widens my perspective on the needs of different communities in terms of legal representation. 

The text, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin, poses a multifold problem of questioning and quantifying not only the capacity of Women in all aspects of art and academia, but as well as the unspoken of standardization that qualifies art as great. I considered this point to be of great interest, because in the same way we expect works of art to be free manifestations of the mind judged on its own merit and not by societal expectations we should expect the same of how we view people regardless of race, sex, gender, etc. However, in establishing that there is a category of "great" that is based on societal standardization we see a similar qualification of people and quantification of their worth by means of society's perception of great. Unfortunately, the reality seen is that "great" is not commonly the first descriptive word used in the discussion of diversity, or diverse communities. Consequently, it is imperative to break down language as was done by Nochlin, in addressing both the societal problem, in this case suggesting women are not great artists, and addressing how language itself suggests further hidden stigmas, such as the implication by the word great that there is an institutionalized standard by which to quantify worth.