Significance of Frida Kahlo's "Self Portrait with Cropped Hair".
Frida Kahlo became an important figure in the women's movement not because she fought for women's rights in an organized way, but because of the way she lived her life. Her experiences, the things that happened to her in her life combined with her nature and strength of character made her famous and known world wide as a modern woman. She would come to represent many complex qualites and behaviors: strength and resilience in the face of tragedy and continous phyisical pain, her own bisexuality, her passionate and difficult relationship with her husband as well as her ability to create herself and her daily life through her art. (Barnet-Sanchez, 2).
This revolutionary Latino painter was born July 6, 1907, in Mexico. She was an independent charming child with a fiery temper. She suffered from polio when she was 6, and this left her right leg permanently smaller. Her determination and strong will helped her to built up her strength to overcome this difficulty. Frida adored her father and they were very close and it was with his help that she overcame her obstacles to become a pre-medical student at the prestigious National Preparatory School, where she was one of only 35 girls out of 2,000 students. Later, she falsified her date of birth by 3 years. Her birthday now happened to coincide with the birth of the Mexican Revolution, as Frida always considered herself a child of the revolution and she wanted to be known as a woman of modern Mexico. (Tuchman, 2) .
A devastating bus accident irreversibly altered Frida's life in 1925 when she was only 18. She was riding with her boyfriend when the bus collided with a trolley car, killing several people and seriously injuring many others. Frida was found in the wreck, covered in blood and severely injured. A metal rod caused a deep abdominal wound and leaving her unable to have children.