As part of Women’s History Month, the Guerilla Girls will be performing at the College of Charleston on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the Beatty Center’s Wachovia Auditorium. This event, sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, is free and open to the public.

The Guerrilla Girls are an engaging, funny, and thought-provoking group of artists, curators, and scholars who act anonymously to critique sexism, racism, and homophobia in politics, art, film, and pop culture. They describe themselves as “feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman, and Batman” because they keep their identities secret and always appear in public dressed in gorilla masks.

“There’s nothing better than seeing scholars in gorilla masks. The Guerrilla Girls make you laugh while also showing you the kinds of double standards that will make you think – or piss you off. They offer a sophisticated – and very entertaining – version of feminist theory in action,” said Alison Piepmeier, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. “We’re delighted that they’ve agreed to come to the College.”

Established in New York in 1985, the group is well known for creating posters, billboards, stickers, and public events to challenge inequities. In recent years, the Guerrilla Girls have appeared at more than 100 universities and museums around the world. They created a large-scale installation for the Venice Biennale, brainstormed with Greenpeace, and participated in Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign in the UK. The Guerrilla Girls’ work has appeared in The New York Times, The London Times, and The New Yorker; on NPR, the BBC and the CBC; and in many art and feminist texts. They are the authors of several books including The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls’ Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes and The Guerrilla Girls’ Art Museum Activity Book, and The Guerrilla Girls’ Hysterical Herstory of Hysteria and How it Was Cured, from Ancient Times Until Now.

The event is sponsored by the Alliance for Full Acceptance, Cougar Activities Board, WGS, Coalition for Equal Rights, CofC NOW, Lowcountry High Rollers, Gay-Straight Alliance, Student Union for Multicultural Affairs, Counseling and Substance Abuse Services, Halsey Gallery, Communication Department, and the Art History Department.

About the Women’s and Gender Studies Program

The College is one of just two institutions in the state that offers a major in women’s and gender studies. Launched in 1984 as a concentration and then expanded to a minor, the program now has 40 affiliated faculty, who represent a variety of academic interests and viewpoints. Activism is at the core of the women’s and gender studies major. This program teaches students to formulate their own opinions regarding important issues – power, justice, family, sexuality, gender roles, race and class – and through community involvement, students learn how to test practical applications of those opinions in real-world situations.

More information about the Guerilla Girls.

For more information about the event, contact Alison Piepmeier at 843.953.2280.