Following somewhat in the footsteps of the avant-garde movement, the feminist art movement emerged in the late 1960s, as a byproduct of the feminist social movement that was gaining ground around the world at that time. period. As feminist painter Joan Snyder once said: “Women's experience is very different from men's. As we grow socially, psychologically, and in every other way, our experiences are simply different. Therefore, our art is going to be different. Determined to find a way to aesthetically verbalize the physical, sexual, socio-political, and emotional aspects of their experiences as women, first-generation female artists began to question the tenets of more formal, emotionally detached artistic styles that had already gained importance. earlier (i.e. minimalism, modernism, formalism), while gravitating more towards what is considered today to be the early stages of post-modernism. Unlike the various styles predominant during the modernist movement, where some artists sought to strip their work of what they considered visually unnecessary or overly expressive, artists in the feminist movement embraced their emotional attachment to the subjects of their work, while also seeking to distinguish their art from that of their (mainly male) modernist counterparts. Feminist artists have achieved this by focusing on subjects intimate to women, such as their daily experiences, their perceptions of the world around them, female anatomy, female physiology, and female body language. While sharing common ground around these issues, female artists' ways of confronting and exposing these issues differed greatly from artist to artist. A good example of feminist art confronting the subjective matter of women...... middle of paper ...... these plates honor various women from throughout history, ranging from prehistory to the era of feminism and present the embroideries the names of the women they represent. The majority of plates present the representation of a symbol in the shape of a butterfly or flower, to represent the shape of the female vulva. According to Irving Sandler in Art of the Post Modern Era, “the dinner encompassed women's prehistory and history, celebrating their worldly, spiritual, and cultural achievements on a monumental scale; emphasized the distinctive biological character of women; and employed occupations historically associated with women.