In “The Graffiti Subculture,” Nancy Macdonald discusses subcultures surrounding graffiti. One part of the essay that I thought was very interesting was the conversation about gender. I never really thought about the relationship between gender and graffiti until reading this essay. However, it is true that I automatically associate graffiti with masculinity. On the top of my head, I cannot think of any famous female graffiti artists. However, this also raises the question of whether Banksy is a man or a woman. Why does everyone assume that Banksy is a man? Does Banksy’s gender matter? I am not sure if gender matters in graffiti unless the graffiti directly addresses concerns of gender. However, the fact that the subculture surrounding graffiti is masculine is important and changes the way we look at graffiti. Is graffiti masculine because it is believed to be dangerous and illicit? Is it masculine because its messy and controversial? I don’t really know how to answer these questions. The Gorilla Girls are an interesting subset of the graffiti world. Although I am not sure they fit directly under the umbrella of graffiti because they don’t work with spray cans as a medium primarily, they do produce “illicit” and “controversial” works. Gender clearly plays an important role in understanding the Gorilla Girls work. However, since they are anonymous like graffiti artists, we don’t actually know that they are all women. Thus, how do we read their work? Does anonymity take away the importance of gender?
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