In the film, Making of Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party,”  there were multiple dynamics that took place throughout the movie that were incredibly intriguing. From the development of the concept of her dinner party, executing the artwork, the interactions amongst the women, and seeing the final product, this film seemed to give a very thorough picture of all that went into the making of this unique exhibition of female artwork.

            From the beginning I enjoyed the fact that Judy Chicago was a woman who was not afraid to stand up for what she felt was right and was willing to go the extra mile to support her causes and opinions. One thing that truly interested me was that she changed her last name to Chicago in support of the Black Panther movement. Judy could sympathize with social injustices and the struggles that come along with not being viewed as equal. Since she was a woman, Judy was fully aware that women had to work twice as hard as men to have nay chance at making any type of name for themselves. I feel that for Judy this was a personal injustice and she made the necessary moves to do something about it.

           

            In watching  Judy pull together the group of women to participate in this “Dinner Party” it was almost funny that these women gathered around food for their sometimes heated discussion. Generally speaking, women are supposed to be the ones to cook and provide meals for everyone, so the fact that they in a way rallied around this brings out a very interesting dynamic. However, at these dinners, the women were able t o express themselves whole-heartedly amongst each other. They weren’t force to keep quiet and hold their tongues to any issues they had.  Even with their difference these women were still able to band together to achieve their goals of creating artwork to be shown to the masses.

           

            In observing these women make their artwork it was great to see how each woman became extremely attached to her respective piece. It allowed viewers to see the nurturing and caring side of these outspoken women. With the ability to nurture, I feel as though the artwork took on that much more of a significant meaning. Even when it was time to set the plates up for display, Judy made the women go through to cutting process to mount the pieces. In this task, you could see the fear of harming their artwork and the care that each woman shown took to ensure that her artwork was indeed safe. I thought that tactic was brilliant on Chicago’s part because by making them endure through it all she basically helped them to truly commit to their work. Even when they artwork was finally put on display, there was large amounts of criticism that came from the older male population. This alone, goes to show that women who step outside of the social structure will most likely be chastised because they are stepping beyond the comfort zone of these men. The determination and perseverance of these women was a great thing to experience and I believe an act like this could have very well been a catalyst to inspire other women to step outside of their comfort zones and experience something different.