When the word “feminist” is uttered, images of women burning bras often come to mind.

What people might not know is that the “bra-burners” never burned their bras. Instead, they simply threw them away. So said Frida Kahlo, a member of a feminist group of performers known as the Guerrilla Girls, who wear gorilla masks on stage.

This isn’t a group that just goes to a place and yells about feminist issues, although they do that too.

They are artists.

According to their Web site, the Guerrilla Girls use their talent to further expose “sexism and racism in politics, the art world, film and culture.” They express these issues through posters, stickers, books and actions. They are out to reinvent the “F” word: Feminism.

“We consider ourselves inhabitants of many worlds and can appear in any one we wish,” Paula Modersohn-Becker, a member of the Guerrilla Girls, said about the group’s book “Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls.”

These girls not only inhabit the worlds of art and public issues, but they also inhabit different lives through their different identities.

No one outside of the group knows just how many Guerrilla Girls there are or what the ethnic background of the group is. Given the activities that the Guerrilla Girls participate in, it is no wonder they prefer to keep this information a secret.

“Frida Kahlo” and “Paula Modersohn-Becker” are not the real names of these women. The names they use are the names of deceased female artists, who may or may not be widely known. They will not reveal their real names for the same reason they don’t reveal their membership figures.

To go with the alternate names, the group also wears gorilla masks. The question is: Why? The legend is that at an early meeting, an original Guerrilla Girl accidentally spelled “Guerrilla” as “gorilla.” Since the group needed a disguise for public appearances, the gorilla masks came in and their signature look was born.

The reason for all the secrecy is that if their true identities were known, they could “kiss off” their art careers. The group has gone after almost every bigwig in the art industry who does not display a fair amount of women and minorities in their art galleries and those influential people could want the women’s careers to end.

The group targets more than issues, people or even posters. They have gone so far as going after the Oscars. They redesigned the golden statuette so that it looked more like the white men who usually win it, according to their Web site.

Their ultimate goal is the equality of genders and races, plain and simple. As for their performance at Sacramento State, Kahlo has a slightly less revolutionary and much more humorous goal.

“Our books are often used as textbooks,” she said. “We want to convert the students.”

The free performance, on 7:30 p.m. Thursday, may not convert all the Sac State students, but it is sure to be fun, since they often use humor in order to make their messages more effective.

Do the girls have a message for the students? Of course they do. “Feminism is a way of looking at the world,” Kahlo said. “So it’s okay to use the ‘F’ word.”

For more information about the Guerrilla Girls, visit their website at www.guerillagirls.com.

Jenna Hughes can be reached at [email protected]