Kahlo's Painting 'I Only Gave Her A Few Small Nips'

“I Only Gave Her A Few Small Nips”
In Schirmer’s Visual Library Frida Kahlo’s Masterpieces there is an interesting painting. The painting is one of Frida’s most bloody and gory painting. The social message that I inferred from the painting was the brutality against women in Mexican society. Mexican culture has been in part defined by machismo an intense strain of masculinity. Mexican men have been expected to be authoritarian, aggressive, and promiscuous. Kahlo forces the viewer to examine this extreme violence, and forces the spectator to deal with Mexican culture and values of gender roles. In this paper I will be giving a detailed explanation of Kahlo’s painting to illuminate why I believe her painting is conveying a social message
It illustrates how they are continually abused by these “small nips” by the men. This painting has a man standing over his girlfriend with a knife in his hand. This conveys that the women get beat by men, and as time passes by these small abuses leave the woman tortured and weak. By forcing the viewer to examine this extreme violence, Kahlo forces the spectator to deal with Mexican Culture values of gender roles. What in this painting made me draw that conclusion? There are a few symbols. One symbol is the naked, bloodied woman laying on her death bed, beneath her dagger- wielding murderer. This woman is wearing one single high-heeled shoe, one fancy lace garter, and a fallen stocking worn. The inference I drew from the first glance is that there is a “fallen woman.” The way her body is positioned, and the way her upper and lower body twist in opposite directions. Also another symbol is the position of the room of the painting. It almost feels like it is cornered by its violence: walls press the bloody bed toward us and one bed leg is cut off by the lower edge of the painting, there is no way to hide the disaster of domestic