Guerrilla Girls make first area appearance at GVSU

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- Who says feminists aren't funny?

To prove naysayers wrong, a trio of Grand Valley State University students brought in support from New York -- in the form of actors who appear in public wearing gorilla masks.

The Guerrilla Girls will make their first West Michigan appearance on March 21, 7 p.m., in the Kirkhof Center on GVSU's Allendale Campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The troupe uses humor (and takes the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms) to provoke discussion and expose sexism and racism in politics, art, music and movies. Based in New York, the troupe appears around the country dressed in gorilla masks to join a long tradition of masked avengers like Robin Hood, Batman, the Lone Ranger and Wonder Woman.

GVSU students Eric Carpenter, Rachel Dudley and Samantha Talbot are responsible for bringing the group to Grand Valley. As a group project for a Women and Gender Studies class, they raised money from various campus departments and made all the arrangements.

"The Guerrilla Girls are the perfect group to bridge theory and practice," Dudley said. "They take feminist principles and turn them into action projects."

Talbot said the acting troupe's unconventional approach to discussing stereotypes about women and girls should resonate well with students.

"College students respond well to humor, and the Guerrilla Girls use a lot of audience participation," she said. "We wanted to answer people who said feminists aren't funny."

By the way, Carpenter, Dudley and Talbot received an A for their project.

The GVSU departments that are sponsoring the event are Women and Gender Studies, Women's Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Department of Liberal Studies, Department of Art and Design, Department of Political Science, School of Communications, and Department of Anthropology.