Cooling Out: On the Paradox of Feminism

How can a political or social movement create so many positive changes while simultaneously developing such negative connotations? Such is the central paradox of Feminism for the editors of this book.
The term "cooling out" was coined by UCLA's Burton Clark to describe the postgraduate period when a student's interest in pursuing an academic career suddenly dwindles. The exhibition project gathered here appropriated Clark's phrase to describe the disinterest of young women toward the ideas and forms of Feminism, resulting from a lack of palpable aims on the one hand and the acceptance of existing structures on the other. The exhibition examined--through works by female and male artists--the influences of the media, education and existing social structures on the constitution of gender identity. This volume goes further, gathering texts by Katy Deepwell, Sonja Eismann, Annie Fletcher, Andrea Geyer, Toril Moi and Vera Tollmann, among others.