Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief
Last Modified: 01:43 AM EDT, 18 May 2011
“I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best.” – Frida Kahlo
MEXICO – Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are two painters who lived extraordinary lives defying conventional standards of conduct and mores of their day. Frida was born on July 6, 1907 and died on July 13, 1954 after a long and protracted illness.
Although Frida did not consider herself a surrealist painter, her paintings portray otherwise. Within the universe of her canvases she depicts her emotional and physical pain with exquisite poignancy. Even someone with a cursory knowledge of surrealism can easily decipher the objects of her derision and disgust.
Her physical pain was the result of a trolley accident in which she suffered serious injuries, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. Also, an iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability.” (Source: Wikipedia)
As a result, by 1944 Frida’s health had deteriorated to such an extent that she had to wear a steel corset 
for several months. The straps of the corset held her spine in place but its rigidity left her unable to move and only able to stand upright or lie supine.
The portrait to the left depicts her damaged spine. The nails piercing her face and body represent the physical pain she has endured since her accident. The larger nail piercing her heart represents the emotional pain caused by Diego.
Her relationship with the famed Diego Rivera was renown for its volatility, dramatic arguments and public altercations. Diego had a larger than life personality and was of immense stature and girth. He was also a philanderer.
Diego’s infidelity caused Frida immense suffering. In response Frida would often engage in extra-marital affairs during their many separations. One of her more famous relationship was with the famed dancer and performer Josephine Baker. Frida’s inability to completely sever her relationship with Diego Rivera is in my observation symptomatic of an abused woman.
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![Rehtaeh Parsons, a teen from Nova Scotia, was a gorgeous, kind, straight-A student with her whole life ahead of her. On Thursday, she hung herself in her bathroom. On Sunday night, her family took her off life-support. Approximately a year and a half earlier, in November 2011, when Rehtaeh was 15 years old, she was reportedly gang-raped by four boys, classmates of hers. The trauma did not end there. One of the boys reportedly took a photo of the act and circulated it among Rehtaeh’s school and community where, as noted, by Rehtaeh’s mother, “it quickly went viral.” Authorities reportedly investigated the sexual assault but claimed there was insufficient evidence to make formal charges. Rehtaeh’s mother recalls the investigation: They didn’t even interview the boys until much, much later. To me, I’d think you’d get the boys right away, separate them…. Nothing was done about [the photos] because they couldn’t prove who had pressed the photo button on the phone. [She was told that the distribution of the photos is] not really a criminal issue, it’s more of a community issue. Even though she was 15 at the time, which is child pornography…. The whole case was full of things like that. We didn’t have a rape kit done because we didn’t even know (anything had happened) until several days later when she had a breakdown in my kitchen. She was trying to keep it to herself. Tormented and bullied, Rehtaeh was forced to leave her school and tried to start fresh in a new community. Despite efforts, she continued to struggle, at one point checking into a hospital to cope with suicidal thoughts, anger, and depression. In an extensive post on a Facebook memorial page, her mother Leah Parsons described how the straight-A high school student became depressed and suicidal after the incident. “The person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys . . . one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” Leah Parsons wrote. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a slut. “This day changed the lives of our family forever.” Rehtaeh, who was a 15-year-old high school student in Cole Harbour at the time, was repeatedly bullied at school and “suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew.” “She was never left alone. She had to leave the community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her asking her to have sex with them. It just never stopped,” her mother told CBC.](http://ayannanahmias.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rehtaeh-parsons-17-canadian-rape-victim-commits-suicide-3.jpg?w=45&h=45&crop=1){kind=small}
13/10/2012 at 00:09
Interesting interpretation of two canonized Latin American painters. I don’t know if I agree though. By casting Frida as a sufferer of abuse (emotional in this case) I think you risk delimiting her in a role once again subsequent to Diego, her more historically recognized husband. Not only that, but you risk jeopardizing her agency, possibly implying that she’d been rendered incapable of making decisions that included staying with her husband, and even implying that she would have produced better work without him. It’s an interesting article, just putting another opinion on the table.
10/10/2012 at 14:57
I also saw the movie and still cannot stand the male lead. She was a wonderful creative artist and did not deserve the hard life that she lived. Thank you for this awesome post!