The woman who inspirited the Political Circus exhibit at the Ritter Art Gallery has only been inside a few times since it opened nearly two months ago. And when she does go in, she tries to stay for less than 30 minutes.
“I am allergic to mold and,unfortunately, the Ritter is moldy,” says Jane Caputi, an FAU women’s studies professor and the person in charge of Ring 1 of the three-ring exhibit.
“Jane’s been in here a few times, but because of her allergies, she tries to avoid it if she can,” says Rod Faulds, University Galleries director and the man who made Caputi’s idea for an exhibita reality.
Ring 1, tagged “Hating Hillary, Baiting Barack & Mocking McCain,” contains more than 200 pieces of Caputi’s own personal collection of media propaganda – including buttons, bumper stickers, posters and T-shirts.
Her first item? A Hillary Clinton nutcracker with “stainless steel thighs.”
Caputi says she got the idea for the collection, which became the inspiration for the Political Circus exhibit, at a women’s studies conference in North Carolina in March.
“I heard someone say they saw a shirt that said ‘I wish Hillary had married O.J.,’ and I started thinking, ‘this would be a great source of information about sexism,'” she says in front of the coffee stand in the business building. “I realized I needed to take these items out of the context of the media so we could discuss them. The idea just kind of popped out of my mouth.”
Before she approached Faulds with her idea, Caputi ran it by her good friend, FAU art professor Carol Prusa.
“Jane [Caputi] came to me with a few items, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, we need to have an exhibit so we can have a discussion,'” says Prusa. “I realized we needed to do something to have an active, open conversation.”
Although she spent six months collecting these items, Caputi says they’re “offensive,” “rude” and “disgusting.”
“I got it all online. You can type in anti-anything, and it all just comes up,” says Caputi. “There’s even a site called CafePress where you can design your own buttons, T-shirts and bumper stickers and they will mail them to you.”
As a feminist, Caputi says she is most offended by the use of the word cunt – in discussion, a word she refers to simply as “the c-word.”
“When you call Hillary that word, you are really talking about all women. It’s not all about Hillary Clinton – it’s about all of us.”
The first panel on the wall directly to the right after you enter the gallery is a T-shirt calling Hillary Clinton a C.U.N.T. (right) – defining it as the Citizens United Not Timid. Caputi says she put it in the gallery to, “call attention to something that needed discussion.”
Caputi, who has given talks around thecountry about sexism and women in politics, authored four books (see right for titles) and produced a nationally recognized film titled
“The Everyday Pornography,” is no stranger toFAU’s academic realm.
She was named Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 2001 and given the Degree of Difference award by the Alumni Association in 2004 for providing a positive impact and special contributions to her students. With the reward, Caputi also received a $1,000 cash stipend.
In 2005, she was named Researcher of the Year for scholarly and creative activities in the field of women’s studies.
And she’s done it all from outside the walls of her office.
“I can’t meet in my office, as I am allergic to the mold and dust in the social science building.”
Although she’s filed mold complaints, Caputi says there’s not much FAU can do about it.
“I’ve put in several complaints but nothing has been done, since they’d have to rip out the walls.
So I meet in classrooms and other buildings without mold.”
Books authored by women’s studies professor Jane Caputi
? Co-authored Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language with Mary Daly (1987)
? Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power, and Popular Culture (1993)
? Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth (1993)
? The Age of Sex Crime (1997)
