Your Bedside Guide to the Guerilla Girls

The Guerrilla Girls have been protesting inequality in the art world since they formed in the 1980s, and they continue to fight the good fight today. While initially focused on sex and race inequality in museums and art galleries, the Guerrilla Girls have also launched political and film industry attacks.

Who are the Guerrilla Girls?

The short story is that nobody knows exactly who the Guerrilla Girls are. The longer story is that the Guerrilla Girls are a small group of women who prefer to remain anonymous. They adopt names of famous female artists from history and don gorilla masks when making appearances. Many also work in the arts as named individuals, but keep their Guerrilla Girls identities a secret.

How do the Guerrilla Girls stage protests?

The Guerrilla Girls use two main tactics when staging protests: dissemination of information, and attention-getting tactics. The information speaks for itself. For example, a 1989 Guerrilla Girls' poster about the Metropolitan Museum of Art stated, "Less than 5% of artists in the Modern Art sections were women, but 89% of the nudes are female." The Guerrilla Girls are known for keeping records on high-profile galleries and museums around the world and publishing the information on colorful posters and stickers.

Because no one would pay attention to a few ladies holding picket signs in front of a museum, but everyone would look twice at a group in gorilla masks, the Guerrilla Girls have taken to using some pretty funny devices to get the attention of the general public. Not only are they an awesome sight in their masks, but the veil of secrecy and the humorous style of their campaigns makes it impossible to disregard their message.

What significant contributions have the Guerrilla Girls made to the art world?

Besides being actively involved in the arts as individuals, the Guerrilla Girls collective has produced a number of memorable posters and billboards. In fact, these advertisements have been shown and archived in many of the museums the Guerrilla Girls have called out for excluding women.

The Guerrilla Girls have also put out a few books, the most notable being The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Because this book contains what many standard art history textbooks have left out, it is sometimes used as a college textbook or a supplemental reading.

Are the Guerrilla Girls still relevant today?

Many parts of the world have come a long way in recognizing the equal rights of women and people of color, and feminism seems passé in some ways. Unfortunately, the art world has not changed with the times. Remember the quote from the 1989 poster? In 2003, it was updated to read that only 3% of the modern artists and 83% of the nudes at the Met were women.

And that's in the Western World. In 2007, the Guerrilla Girls went to China to protest the exclusion of women artists from Shanghai Contemporary 07 New International Contemporary Art Fair. Mexico and Guatemala are also on the list for future visits.

The Guerrilla Girls have also turned their eyes to the American film industry, where a female director has yet to receive the Oscar for Best Director.