Nina Castelli '12

2012 Hatcher Prize Winner

Nina Castelli '12 is an Art major and a Philosophy minor who ran Cross-Country while at Kenyon. She also holds a high interest in Women's and Gender Studies topics and was part of the Sexual Misconduct Advisors for her junior and senior year. When told to appropriate an image for her Contemporary Painting class in 2011, she decided to focus on the iconic Rosie the Riveter. Noticing that even though Rosie has become a symbol for women's rights well into the modern age, it was still obvious that women have long way to go before being equal with men. Rosie the Riveter was painted in 1942, and yet it is 2012, with issues such as abortion still being decided by male bodies, and women's sexual lives being judged and shamed by a men-centered culture. In addition to using Rosie the Riveter, she took the tagline "She is a thing of beauty" from the Stella Artois adverts that feature a faceless woman being approached by a man, and contrasted it with a scantily clad behind-the-scenes Rosie. In turning Rosie around, she has evolved into the faceless woman who is objectified in so much of culture and advertising today.

About the Molly R. Hatcher Prize in Women's and Gender Studies

This prize, established in 1989, and renamed in 2000 to honor the memory of Molly Hatcher, is awarded annually for the best work done during the previous calendar year by a current Kenyon student in which gender is a central theme. The work may take any form including, but not limited to, essay, composition, artwork, performance, or scientific study.

Submissions, which need not have been created for a Women's and Gender Studies class, should be accomplished by a letter explaining the work's origins and intent. In the case of the creative and performing arts, an interrelated body of work may count as a single submission. Electronic submissions are preferred. The prize carries a cash prize of $100 and the winner's name is engraved on a plaque that hangs in the Crozier Center. More...