Prologue to Act 2 Summary

Once again, Heidi is in a lecture hall at Columbia University, lecturing to her women's art history class. In her discussion, she praises one portrait-painter's use of light and color, but criticizes the same artist for "copping out" by delineating the head in traditional male portraiture. Heidi prefers that an artist be willing to lose her edges in favor of paint and light. In pointing out the similarities between two paintings, Heidi describes them as uniquely female, because the women depicted are slightly removed from the action of the painting, yet are watching closely while easing the way for other participants to join in the action.

Prologue to Act 2 Analysis

This second lecture foreshadows the conclusions Heidi comes to on her journey through the 1980s. She is critical of a feminism that thinks like patriarchy, that values what patriarchy...