Featured Women's Empowerment

Frida Kahlo’s Legacy Lives On—In Her Art and Identity

By Shakira Del Toro

Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly? —Frida Kahlo

Identity is evolving and breaking free from set boundaries, today more than ever. Fluidity in both gender identification and sexual orientation is becoming more acceptable—American singer and actress Demi Lovato revealed her pansexuality a week ago. However, identity has been fluid throughout time, and trailblazers have been exploring and representing this diversity even before gender and LGBTQ identities became household words.

Frida Kahlo is a perfect example of an artist who was unapologetic about her identity, which was crucial to her art.

Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress

As Pippa Raga covered in Here’s Why Frida Kahlo Is One of the Most Significant Female Artists, Kahlo was resilient. She was born in Mexico City in 1907. At the age of 6, she contracted polio. She was bedridden for months and as a result of the illness, she developed a limp. In 1922, she was impaled by a steel pole right through her hip. She was in a full-body cast and stuck on a bed for months again. However, this was what kicked off her career. She started painting as a distraction from her pain. Her first self-portrait was completed in 1923. It’s called Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress. Kahlo sits in front of a body of water at night. It’s a dauntless image: a woman alone at night. She was fearless, even after her multiple health conditions.

Kahlo also explores her feelings and distinct selves in the empowering painting The Two Fridas, which reveals her boundless identities. Without each of them she would bleed to death, which is resembled by the cord that connects both of Frida’s hearts. The duality, emotional complexity, cultural connections, and sense of self wrapped up in the image speak volumes—much of which speak to women, and people of any gender, today.

Kahlo had an excess of passion to give, and she didn’t discriminate. She explored her sexual orientation while she was married to Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Their relationship was unconventional. Both of them were involved in extramarital affairs, and Kahlo’s lovers were both men and women. She was also very genderfluid in her physical representation—emphasizing her features in a way that invites examination of femininity, masculinity, self-perception, confidence, and more.

Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair

As culture writer Elizabeth Fazzare pointed out in Why Artist Frida Kahlo’s Work Is More Relevant Now Than Ever, “throughout her life, Kahlo subverted traditional gender roles, dressing in men’s clothing in family photos and in her self-portraits.” Kahlo rocked a suit in her painting Self Portrait with Cropped Hair. The scissors in her hand reveal that she has cut off her hair, which is scattered all over the ground. Who needs hair anyway?

Her most famous look was her unibrow and mustache. It was a way of fighting off stereotypes on how a woman should look and what is considered attractive. It also played a role in her gender fluidity. Mustaches are associated with masculinity, which she boldly wore on her face. The unibrow was a physical way of connecting both gender identities to herself.

However, there was one identity that never fluctuated: Kahlo’s Mexican pride. Whether in paintings or daily errands, she wore vibrant colors, often accompanied by lavish flower headpieces. This is Tehuana style of dress, very traditional women’s attire. She lived both in the U.S. and Mexico, yet she always held Mexico in higher respect. In the portrait Self-portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States, Kahlo depicts Mexico with a natural landscape, while the American side is full of machinery and pollution.

Self-portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States

The boldness, imagination, and vision with which Kahlo approached her work and life made her an icon and legend—in art, and in for women or anyone exploring their individuality. She lived a bold life in her paintings and in her skin. She broke gender boundaries, while wearing her Mexican pride every day. She was a renowned figure that was proud of her identities and never missed an opportunity to express them. She will not be silenced—not then, not now, not ever.

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