Her Table Is Ready

"That got picked up and transmitted, even in women's studies courses, that that's what 'The Dinner Party' is," she said. "So a whole generation of young people learned to see it in a way that's different from what it really is."

I never learned to see it, period. "The Dinner Party" never came up in any of my women's studies or art classes in college.

These days "The Dinner Party" shares space with "Global Feminisms," the Sackler Center's inaugural exhibition. If "The Dinner Party" is my mother's feminism, then "Global Feminisms" is theoretically mine.

The contemporary art exhibition contains no works by men, though a museum spokeswoman says the Sackler Center will feature art by male feminists in the future. Not all art by women is feminist and not all feminist art is by women.

Chicago had this to say about the difference between women's art and feminist art:

"Well, what's the difference between men's art and abstract expressionism?" she said. "Abstract expressionism is a movement, and men's art is art made by people with penises."

Similar to my this-is-icky-get-it-away-from-me reaction to "The Dinner Party," I had a this-is-scary-get-it-away-from-me reaction to "Global Feminisms." The exhibition includes:

· A photograph of Japanese artist Ryoko Suzuki's face bound with strings of bloody pigskin.

· A video of Israeli artist Sigalit Landau hula-hooping naked with barbed wire, the barbs tearing her skin with each rotation.

· A video by Washington's own Mary Coble of her binding and unbinding her breasts with duct tape until they are raw.

I'll stop there.

Apparently, self-inflicted pain -- especially while naked -- is the main way that contemporary feminist artists communicate their internal landscape. Seems like an easy out to me.