IS FRIDA KAHLO STILL A RELEVANT ICON FOR WOMEN TODAY? (Essay Sample)

IS FRIDA KAHLO STILL A RELEVANT ICON FOR WOMEN TODAY? Student’s Name Professor’s Name University Name Course Date Perhaps, Frida Kahlo is the most famous female artist in history. Frida Kahlo’s story begins in the Coyocoan, Mexico City where she was born in 1907. Her father had Mexican descent and had migrated to Mexico as a photographer where she met Kahlo’s mother, Matilde who was half Mexican-half Spanish. Despite the fact that his early life was marred with tragedies, it is as though the tragic events were the source of her artistic inspiration (Collins, 2018). At the age of six years, Kahlo was diagnosed with polio that affected her right leg. She was forced to spend more than nine months being bedridden. Fortunately, she got well although her leg did not recover complexly and walked as she limbed. At the age of eighteen, she met another tragic event when she was involved in a car accident that left her severely hurt. Although she was lucky to recover, her life completely changed. It was from then that she decided to venture into arts as a way of spending time and also representing her inner thoughts. The fact that she was alone most of the time, provided her with a good chance to indulge in painting. Although her works did not attract much attention during her time, it is now gaining influence and popularity across the globe (Collins, 2018). As much as her paintings portrayed strong autobiographical elements combined with realism, she also explored different questions of significance including identity, gender, class, race, fashion, and postcolonialism, which still makes a relevant icon for women even today. First, everyone can concur with the fact that if asked to pick that historical female icon artist who is relentless and eccentric, Frida Kahlo will be among the top five choices if not the only choice. But what is even surprising now is how Frida Kahlo is gaining influence and popularity among women at an unprecedented rate. It is a fact that even women leaders in top positions nowadays look up to Kahlo’s teaching thrive (Truthout, 2018). For instance, Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May was spotted wearing a bracelet with Frida Kahlo’s face in a recent Conservative Party conference. It is a clear indication that her deeds, resilience, and self-confidence not only motivate the young women, but also the already established influential figures. It is now more than six decades since her death but her legacy is still a driving force for women empowerment and inspires women across the globe. Besides, her artworks have even taken over the fashion industry where the designers tend to borrow a lot from her style and integrate with the current cultural expectations. She is indeed an icon woman to emulate. Her artwork and image presented in various paintings explore her hardships, and acknowledges the flaws and daily insecurities that women go through by using her own experiences (Collins, 2018). Every time she was faced with a challenge she could turn to painting, and express the situation through arts. By doing this, she was showing to the women in the world that every other woman goes through challenges and the importance is how one perceives it. For her, challenges were an inspiration and new ideas to develop new paintings. She also sheds light on feminism and diversity, and patriarchal oppression. Due to all these, Frida Kahlo can be said to be a symbol of courage and today's women can learn many lessons from her, which makes her a relevant icon for women today. The most important feature that today’s young women can learn from this relentless icon woman is the virtue of loving oneself and having confidence. Kahlo’s image is recognizable everywhere even in her paintings. She maintained the same looks without the fear of societal or third-party judgments. Her self-confidence, self-esteem, and confidence are of unique magnitudes. Frida’s unique, vibrant, and dramatic spirits glow conspicuously through her instantly recognizable looks. She happily owned her looks, and how she looked like is all she wanted to look like and not what the society thought she should have looked like (The Medium, 2018). Such confidence is unique bearing in mind that she was a woman in the limelight. Most women in the limelight succumb to people’s judgments and are even forced to buy some opinion that leads them to enhance some parts of their bodies. It is even becoming rampant in the current generation of liposuction, plastic surgery, and reconstructive surgery. However, Kahlo bit the odds and defied the expected imagery of a woman. She was able to maintain dark eyes, slight mustache, and unibrow, the looks that would have otherwise severely affected her self-esteem. It is a worthwhile lesson to the current women who succumb to public opinions, which in the end hurts their emotions and how they feel about themselves. Listening to people’s opinions does not only affect an individual confidence but also can kill a dream or ends a career (The Medium, 2018). Thus, the relevance of Frida Kahlo in the current era is on the need for today’s women and even everyone to accept their uniqueness and be comfortable with own skin, but not to succumb to shame and senseless opinions. Still, there is more to her looks and image that has a lot of relevance to the current generation of women. Through her looks, she was able to approach fashion as a form of art. Although it is apparent that Kahlo came before time, she did not fear to cause controversy for what she believed in. to her, it seems there were no impassible boundaries when an idea knocks at the door. It is even difficult to fathom how she does her things given the fact that the society at that time was still conservative and some personal expressions could have attracted societal wrath. For instance one of her famous painting “Broken Column”, Kahlo depicts herself naked and split through the middle downwards (Collins, 2018). Viewing this painting by the cultural expectations of the mid-20th century, it is possible most people questioned her reputation. In the painting, Kahlo leaves little to the imagination and the conservative society of the previous century could have condemned that act with the harshest terms possible. Still, she was not moved and portrayed what was already conceived in her mind. Thus, through her work, she was able to bring a new experience to the society. It then shows that she treated her work seriously and it could be impossible to separate her from her work as she uses it to advocate and express her ideas on the various issues throughout her life. Again, the current generation of women learns something about taking one’s work seriously. Therefore, Frida Kahlo is not only prevalent today, but also very important. She is genuine and open, which are crucial elements that enabled her to remain culturally relevant for all that time (The Medium, 2018). Frida shows unmatched obsession of tearing down the cultural walls that confined private selves by exposing herself and making her image an embodiment and emblem of societal cultural change. Additionally, Kahlo is still relevant even today considering her life experiences and how she turned misfortunes into blessings. Clearly, Frida was not an individual to be pinned down by misfortunes or tragic events. In every instance in her life when she was faced with a serious challenge, she emerged triumphant and better than before. Such energy is revealed from the pieces of artwork she created after her unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant. Kahlo tried more than once to have children of her own but she was unlucky that every time she attempted, the results were a miscarriage. The accident she was involved when she was eighteen had severely affected her pelvic region to the extent that she could not sustain a pregnancy. After realizing that giving birth was near impossible after the attempted and failed trials, Frida went ahead to portray and explore her challenges through artwork. The most famous artwork that captured such suffering is the “Henry Ford Painting”, which depicts Frida lying in bed naked, and bleeding from the miscarriage. Six ribbons suspending various items are attached to her. It can be translated that the ribbons attached to her symbolize the umbilical cord, which shows that she cannot have children (Stylist, 2018). Kahlo is not afraid to make it known that she had tried to have children with no avail. From her openness, one can learn the importance of accepting situations as well as believing that everything happens for a reason and that nothing is absolute. Hence, due to that fact, her relevance will last for generations to come. Besides, Kahlo focuses all her energy in chasing a passion, which enables her to be known even years after her demise, and earn the status of an icon. In the early societies, customs, morals, and societal principles mattered so much (Guardian, 2018). The society expected people to behave in a certain manner. It was even terrible for women who were supposed to submit to all the societal expectations even when it infringed on their personal lives. Concerning such issues, the fact that Kahlo decides to paint herself completely naked was an absolute defiance of the societal expectation of how a woman should carry herself in the public. By using the painting “Henry Ford Painting”, Kahlo tried to show how the society had prevented her from doing what she likes. She also uses the same painting to advocate for new change in the society. The flowers in the pain certainly refer to women and femininity, while the snail depicts how the life of Kahlo had been slow and the progress was negligible. Although as now people can say she was able to do all she wanted to do, the painting sends the message that doing it was not easy. She must have faced numerous challenges and opposition, but with her courage, she soldiered on to achieve her objective and satisf...