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Free Castration on Demand, A Woman's Right to Choose
Pen Dalton, born 1944 - Enlarge image
Free Castration on Demand, A Woman's Right to Choose
- Object:
Poster
- Place of origin:
UK (made)
- Date:
ca. 1974 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Pen Dalton, born 1944 (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Colour screenprint
- Credit Line:
Gift of the American Friends of the V&A; Gift to the American Friends by Leslie, Judith and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko
- Museum number:
E.656-2004
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case 3G, shelf DR26
This witty and provocative poster challenges the viewer to engage with a number of issues. It makes references to debates within the Women's Movement over the 'castration' of women by medical procedures and to the feminist theories about male castration anxiety. The text echoes the contemporary slogan 'Free abortion on demand, a woman's right to choose' and expresses the artist's ambivalence about the 'simplistic demanding of abortion'. The image plays on the stereotype of the feminist as a wild Amazonian man-hater. It derives from Théophile Steinlen's poster showing Marianne, on behalf of French liberty, storming the fortress of capitalism.
