[BLOG POST 7/11/24] Recently I listened to an episode of "The Great Women Artists" podcast by Katy Hessel and she interviewed poet and science writer Cat Bohannon about the female body in both art and science. It was fascinating! If you like pod casts and are interested in this topic I highly recommend a listen.
They cover a lot of ground not least of which is how for most of human history scientists have studied the male body and ignored the female body. Cat postulates two main reasons for this bias, (1) misogyny, (2) women's bodies are more complicated and thus it is harder to have a "clean" or "easy" scientific study.
Anyway, she has recently written a book called, "EVE: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution" that dives into all sorts of interesting and messy things about being a woman. She says:
We need a kind of user’s manual for the female mammal. A no-nonsense, hard-hitting, seriously researched (but readable) account of what we are. How female bodies evolved, how they work, what it really means to biologically be a woman. Something that would rewrite the story of womanhood. This book is that story. We have to put the female body in the picture. If we don’t, it’s not just feminism that’s compromised. Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all take a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So it’s time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is.
I'm not sure about you dear reader but I certainly could use that information!!!
Anyway, one of the details Cat uncovered is that women have a superpower related to our two X chromosomes (men have one X and one Y chromosome). Apparently there is some evidence to show that because women have an extra bit of a chromosome they can see more colors than men.
THOUSANDS more colors!
How cool is that???
It certainly explains how I look at a color and will say something like, "I don't like that red, it has too much blue in it" and my husband just shakes his head. 😉
I use my superpower in my art, especially when painting skin which has a tremendous range of colors not only person to person but within one person's face. If you've never noticed before look at the person next to you and ask if their forehead is the same color as their cheeks. I guarantee they aren't the same.
If you are a biological woman reading this I encourage you to look around and take a moment to celebrate the fact that you are seeing the world in more color than any man ever has.
And, if you are a biological man reading this, I encourage you to look at the women around you and see them as the very special creations they are.
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