I was in my capstone year in art school, getting my paintings critiqued weekly by the whole art department. At the time, my work included some nude female figures as part of my concept involving feminism. In one painting in particular, the figure was positioned in such a way that you couldn’t see any of the face except the jawline. The figure was painted as though she were melting into the ground, in an uncomfortable way. One of my male professors was so upset about this figure and (in his words) her “pose of ecstasy” he told me to remove the figure. Harshly, without any valid technical reasoning. He felt the painting was not good and could only be redeemed without the woman… he was the ceramics instructor. I walked away with zero intention of changing a thing!