Ideas surrounding gender identity and expression vary across cultures and through time. In Unangax̂ culture, for example, as elder Ilarion (Larry) Merculieff explains, “Being a man means being patient, a keen observer, considerate of people and wildlife, cooperative, not macho or aggressive, soft spoken, always in relationship to everything and being present in the moment. Western society calls these qualities ‘feminine’ and somehow that is negative, but in the Unangax̂ worldview, these qualities are necessary to be a true man.”
Historically, Indigenous cultures also recognized two-spirits, people who identify as having both a male and female essence or spirit. Colonization introduced a patriarchal social organization, and the idea of a rigid gender binary with two opposing genders.
Today, we see increased visibility of two-spirit, nonbinary, transgender, and gender-neutral identities, among others. Here, artists explore how gender roles are learned, enforced, subverted, and transformed.
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Josephine Ungott, (1905-1983)
St. Lawrence Island Yupik Doll, 1956
Seal gut, crested auklet feathers and beaks, fur, beads
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, gift of Miss Mary E. Rowley, 1965.14.33
Yup’ik girls illustrated stories and legends for each other, sketching images in mud or snow with story knives made from ivory, wood, antlers, or filed metal strips. Girls also used the knives for games that strengthened their spatial relations, problem solving, and memory skills. Today, butter knives are sometimes used to practice and create sewing designs.
Dolls, commonly given to girls, provide an opportunity for children to model behavior and role-play. Josephine Ungott’s doll represents a girl in traditional clothing and is made from seal gut, auklet feathers and beaks, glass beads, fur, alder, and other natural materials. The Tlingit-attributed doll depicts a woman carrying a baby.
Mass-produced paper dolls emerged in the 1800s. They allowed children to dress the dolls in a variety of different fashions. These paper dolls from the 1940s reveal dominant beauty standards of the time: fair-skinned, tall, thin, and made-up. The Fiona Fisherman doll reflects changing social norms and possibilities for women today.
Doll with baby carrier, c. 1935
Collected in Unalaska area, attributed to a Tlingit maker
Seal hide, gut, felt, beads, thread
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, gift of Ms. Alice Daniel, 1973.65.2ab
Yup’ik girls illustrated stories and legends for each other, sketching images in mud or snow with story knives made from ivory, wood, antlers, or filed metal strips. Girls also used the knives for games that strengthened their spatial relations, problem solving, and memory skills. Today, butter knives are sometimes used to practice and create sewing designs.
Dolls, commonly given to girls, provide an opportunity for children to model behavior and role-play. Josephine Ungott’s doll represents a girl in traditional clothing and is made from seal gut, auklet feathers and beaks, glass beads, fur, alder, and other natural materials. The Tlingit-attributed doll depicts a woman carrying a baby.
Mass-produced paper dolls emerged in the 1800s. They allowed children to dress the dolls in a variety of different fashions. These paper dolls from the 1940s reveal dominant beauty standards of the time: fair-skinned, tall, thin, and made-up. The Fiona Fisherman doll reflects changing social norms and possibilities for women today.
Anna Martins, (1927-2012)
Story knife, 1972
Walrus ivory and ink
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 1972.82.1
Yup’ik girls illustrated stories and legends for each other, sketching images in mud or snow with story knives made from ivory, wood, antlers, or filed metal strips. Girls also used the knives for games that strengthened their spatial relations, problem solving, and memory skills. Today, butter knives are sometimes used to practice and create sewing designs.
Dolls, commonly given to girls, provide an opportunity for children to model behavior and role-play. Josephine Ungott’s doll represents a girl in traditional clothing and is made from seal gut, auklet feathers and beaks, glass beads, fur, alder, and other natural materials. The Tlingit-attributed doll depicts a woman carrying a baby.
Mass-produced paper dolls emerged in the 1800s. They allowed children to dress the dolls in a variety of different fashions. These paper dolls from the 1940s reveal dominant beauty standards of the time: fair-skinned, tall, thin, and made-up. The Fiona Fisherman doll reflects changing social norms and possibilities for women today.
Claire Fejes, (1920-1998)
Woman Washing Dishes, Beaver, Alaska, 1981
Oil on canvas
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 1981.83.1
Claire Fejes traveled throughout rural Alaska, painting scenes of daily life in Indigenous communities. Frequently, she depicted women at work, fishing, butchering, cleaning, and caring for children. By elevating scenes of work, particularly “women’s work,” Fejes communicated the intrinsic value of labor that is often overlooked.
Yup’ik or Iñupiaq paper doll, c. 1915
Crayon, graphite, and paper
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, Floyd and Gladys Allen Collection, 1997.18.87ab
Yup’ik girls illustrated stories and legends for each other, sketching images in mud or snow with story knives made from ivory, wood, antlers, or filed metal strips. Girls also used the knives for games that strengthened their spatial relations, problem solving, and memory skills. Today, butter knives are sometimes used to practice and create sewing designs.
Dolls, commonly given to girls, provide an opportunity for children to model behavior and role-play. Josephine Ungott’s doll represents a girl in traditional clothing and is made from seal gut, auklet feathers and beaks, glass beads, fur, alder, and other natural materials. The Tlingit-attributed doll depicts a woman carrying a baby.
Mass-produced paper dolls emerged in the 1800s. They allowed children to dress the dolls in a variety of different fashions. These paper dolls from the 1940s reveal dominant beauty standards of the time: fair-skinned, tall, thin, and made-up. The Fiona Fisherman doll reflects changing social norms and possibilities for women today.
Paper dolls, c. 1940
Paper
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, gift of Carol Carey, 1992.11.2
Yup’ik girls illustrated stories and legends for each other, sketching images in mud or snow with story knives made from ivory, wood, antlers, or filed metal strips. Girls also used the knives for games that strengthened their spatial relations, problem solving, and memory skills. Today, butter knives are sometimes used to practice and create sewing designs.
Dolls, commonly given to girls, provide an opportunity for children to model behavior and role-play. Josephine Ungott’s doll represents a girl in traditional clothing and is made from seal gut, auklet feathers and beaks, glass beads, fur, alder, and other natural materials. The Tlingit-attributed doll depicts a woman carrying a baby.
Mass-produced paper dolls emerged in the 1800s. They allowed children to dress the dolls in a variety of different fashions. These paper dolls from the 1940s reveal dominant beauty standards of the time: fair-skinned, tall, thin, and made-up. The Fiona Fisherman doll reflects changing social norms and possibilities for women today.
Linda Smogor, (b. 1954)
Deva and Her Beach Towel, 2008
Inkjet print
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 2008.54.3
Linda Smogor’s black-and-white portrait shows a young girl draped in a towel emblazoned with Marilyn Monroe’s face. Young women receive conscious and subconscious messages about how to look, dress, and behave from advertisements, social media, television, and movies. Monroe herself struggled with the way she was commodified, famously saying, “Hollywood is place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”
Kali Spitzer, (b. 1983)
Holland Andrews, 2018
C-print of scanned tintype
On loan from the artist
Canadian artist Kali Spitzer is of Kaska Dena and Jewish Transylvanian ancestry. She creates tintype portraits of primarily Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and queer friends and family, imbuing her subjects with a sense of dignity and autonomy often lacking in mainstream representations. Her goal is to create a space of safety, where people can tell their stories and “be seen, in a good way.” Holland Andrews, depicted here, is a nonbinary musician and friend of Spitzer’s.
Ricky Tagaban, (b. 1990)
Denial, 2015
Mixed media
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 2015.27.1
Ricky Tagaban is a two-spirit Chilkat weaver from Juneau. In Tlingit culture, Chilkat weaving is practiced primarily by women, but male-bodied two-spirit people were historically welcomed to the practice as well.
“To make [Chilkat weavings] is a really prestigious thing, traditionally," Tagaban says. "So, for two-spirit people to be able to make Chilkat, it shows that we weren’t stigmatized. We actually had an elevated position in our society before colonization began."
Allie High, (b. 1952)
Raven Maid (Made), 1992
Mixed media
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 1992.74.1
Unangax̂ and Tsimshian artist Allie High learned to carve from Jack Hudson of Metlakatla, Alaska. Although Northwest Coast carving tends to be associated with men, there are many accomplished female carvers practicing in Alaska and along the Northwest Coast today.
High’s mask, Raven Maid (Made) is a tongue-in-cheek reference to her Tlingit heritage and her female subject. The mask, with full lips that appear painted with lipstick, reveals High’s interest in the subtlety of feminine facial features, as well as a modern updating of traditional Northwest Coast forms.
George Ootenna, (1878-1971)
Untitled, c. 1900
Graphite on paper
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, 2004.61.85ab
Scenarios depicted by Iñupiaq artists Ongualuk and George Ootenna show the importance of play and socialization in the development of gender roles.
Ongualuk’s drawing shows a woman in fancy dress. The caption, likely written by teacher Ellen Kittredge Lopp reads: “Nora’s sister, Ongualuk, has been here drawing some pictures this afternoon and I will send you some. Though they are not in very good shape they will show what pretty girls like to dress in.”
Ootenna’s generation survived the 1918 flu pandemic and he was one of a few surviving adults in Wales who took on responsibility for community leadership during this time. He is remembered as a source of knowledge and caring for young people who lost family members and parents.
Ongualuk
Dress of a Thrifty Woman Who is Rich, c. 1900
Graphite on paper
Collection of the Anchorage Museum, gift of Kathleen Lopp Smith, 2004.61.98