Some pretentious b.s.

Women's roles in art are traditionally portrayed as weak, emotional, and with emphasis to their ability for reproduction. A feminist would argue that these creative renditions of women are purely that, interpretations, not reality. The roles portrayed by women in pieces like David's The Oath of the Horatii are not biologically based, they are created by a society (dominated by males) to impose on and use the female form to please the male funder/viewer.

A feminist approach to looking at art means analyzing the peice in terms of its portrayal of gender-how men and women are rendered in their social roles through use of stance and color choice, among other things.

In the above mentioned painting by David, the men are confident, controlled and powerful. This contrasts the helplessness of the women, huddled together and openly displaying their emotions. The men are created using strong, hard angles rather than the slopped and soft shapes of the female forms.

Analyzing the color with a feminist approach would see David's choice to use subdued and languid tones on the women as representing them with less respect than the men whose clothing colors are vibrant and commanding confidence and self-conference. 

Hmmmm.... is this total crap. Well, yup. I think I forgot to think about history.