# @gettymuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CMFaZ7iHF1G
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34229488-gettymuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/11dc47e3be.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-03-06T16:49:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Getty (@gettymuseum) — https://gondola.cc/gettymuseum

## Caption

Meet the breast dress.

This important piece of feminist history had humble origins. In the late 1970s, artist Anne Gauldin made plaster casts of breasts of members of her art collective. These molds were painted with latex, and then sewn onto a pink dress in the style of a 1950s diner uniform.

Gauldin and artist Jerri Allyn co-founded the performance art group The Waitresses. The group often used humor to raise awareness and champion social change.

In these colorful performances, they explored the multiple stereotypes of the waitress—as maternal nurturer, servant, and sex object—while communicating the bleak realities of sexual discrimination and wage inequality.

Pictured here, the breast dress was worn by the character of Great Goddess Diana, a symbol of fertility and sustenance. She appeared during The Waitresses’ first series of performances, “Ready to Order,” held in different Venice restaurants in the spring of 1978.

Gauldin was inspired by the Diana at Ephesus, and other ancient female monuments she toured in Europe. Swipe to see a Roman replica of the goddess's famous cult statue. Scholars have identified the rows of pendant objects on her torso as breasts, but also as eggs, beehives, or bulls' testicles.

The breast dress is now over 40 years old, and is currently at Getty for a bit of conservation work. Check out the #linkinbio to learn more about this amazing dress, and the work to be done.

#BreastDress #FeministArt #ArtHistory #WomensHistoryMonth #NationalDressDay

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## Tags

arthistory, feministart, breastdress, linkinbio, womenshistorymonth, nationaldressday

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