Big Daddy with Hats

A leading feminist artist and political activist, May Stevens created Big Daddy in the mid-1960s as a symbol of reactionary, patriarchal politics and to protest American involvement in the Vietnam War. Stevens based the character of Big Daddy on her own father, whose stanch patriotism and blind allegiance to conservative beliefs had poisoned their relationship. Her mocking depiction renders him naked, bloated, and sporting a bullet-shaped head, an unmistakably phallic symbol signifying male dominance and the capacity for violence. Here, she portrays Big Daddy as a paper doll, to be dressed in the guise of a soldier, police officer, executioner, or Klansman. In this parody of authority, she renders him powerless, nothing more than a child’s game.