Text 6- Frida (Gender, culture)

  This book tells the life of Frida Kahlo in a very innocent way. She really enjoyed painting. She was living a normal life as a teenager until she was in a horrible accident that left her almost without being able to walk. She went through different surgeries that made worse or better her pain. She would then paint her depression and her feelings until she had the courage to show these paintings to the most famous painter of the time, Diego Rivera. She would then go on to marry him.


Citation: Winter, Jonah. FRIDA. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1 Feb. 2002. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

    I believe that the life of Frida is important for many reasons. Not only was she a very famous painter, but she was also a women activist. She wasn't afraid of being different in a very macho Mexican country. She was the one in a family picture that would dress as a man out of all her sisters and her dad was okay with it. I don't know if I would mention this in class, depends on the maturity of the class, but she was also bisexual, even when she was with Diego Rivera. Today we are so caught up with what we can and cannot wear as a woman or as a man too. I saw recently that they were making fun of a little boy because when asked what he wanted to be for Halloween he said Elsa. I see nothing wrong with that. I just believe that society imposes so many things on us because they believe a gender should act a certain way and I believe we all think like that at times. She also really suffered because she couldn't have children. This was important because it is said that if you can't have children then you are worthless as a woman. You can see her suffer because of this in several of her painting. And even though she was a more "liberal" woman she still valued the opportunity to have children.  She is such an interesting woman that breaks the norms in several aspects and does so much even with her limited ability to move. But Frida, with this book, gives the essentials of her life without going into too many details, only the ones that I would pick and choose to share to the class.