Images by Barbara Kruger

The three images (figures 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3) that are in this chapter, made by the artist Barbara Kruger all communicate about gendered identities. When you look at the first image (figure 10.1) you see a man's arm and he's holding a fire torch, and behind the man's arm there seems to be a picture of what it appears to be a heart. This first image is representing power and pride to the masculine side and the heart is representing "love" to the female side. You should keep in mind that males are most of the time considered tough, bold, powerful, arrogant, and preciseful. Females are considered sensitive, gentle, modest, caring, and lovable. Both have different qualities in themselves, a man is defined by the actions he does or the way he looks, same goes for females. Back to the 1st image, there is a quote that goes along with the image, "Your moments of joy have the precision of military strategy." What comes up in your mind when you hear the word "military"? Females or males? To me -- I think of males when I hear the word "military". The word "joy" in this situation is "love". So when I look at the first image (figure 10.1), it's masculine and also feminine.
The second image (figure 10.2), looks like an explosion and there is also a quote that goes with this picture, "Your manias become science." I went and looked through a dictionary to find out what the word "manias" meant, and I came up with an excessively instense enthusiasm, interest, or desire. Also under this word, it is a violent abnormal behavior. I do not see anything on this picture that could be considered feminine. If you see an explosion, you think of man destroying a part of land or area. Scientist that create things for destruction are mostly males.
On the third and final image by Barbara Kruger (figure 10.3), you see two hands that seem to be from a man and he's scrubbing a "soap" and the quote that goes for this image goes like this, "You make history when you do business." Who are the ones that are conisdered to do more work? Males, females are more known to be housewifes at home, cooking and taking care of the kids and the house. Kruger is challenging certain norms that cluster around the sign of masculinity (military, scientist, and businessman) -- what would be interesting to see is seeing signs or feminine in these images. On the third image you could make the man hands to female and see if there would be a different meaning to it (to all of the three images).