Wearing their trademark gorilla masks, a group of anonymous women from the art world will speak at Penn State to "reinvent the 'f' word -- feminism."

The Guerrilla Girls will lecture at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Schwab Auditorium in the first installment of the 2005-06 Feminist Scholar Speaker Series, sponsored by Penn State's Women's Studies Graduate Organization and the Women's Studies Honor Society.

For those who have never heard of the Guerrilla Girls, they're a group of women from New York City's art world who, in 1985, got fed up with what they saw as a male-dominated profession.

What started as anonymous protests (complete with gorilla masks) in galleries and museums, grew into an activist organization that now tours all over the world.

For fear of retribution in their real-world careers, the Girls maintain their anonymity by speaking only under the names of dead female artists.

"We've never been systematic about what we do -- when something annoys us or bothers us, we deal with it," said a Guerrilla Girl who identified herself as Frida Kahlo. "A lot of people think we're performers, but we're really visual artists who criticize the powers that be."

As visual artists, the Girls have created more than 100 books, posters, stickers and exhibitions.

This past summer, the Guerrilla Girls created an exhibition that they took to Italy, cataloguing the number of women artists shown in Venice's major museums.

One of the group's more controversial and well-known posters is of a naked women wearing a gorilla mask with the saying "do women have to be naked to get into the Met museum?"

The Girls found that out of 1,238 exhibits displayed in museums, less than 40 were by women.

The Girls' newest book is 2003's Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes.

Several Penn State women's studies classes use The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, an alternative look at art history.

Leisha Jones, lecturer in women's studies, uses the book in her classes on women in the arts and humanities.

She said she is looking forward to seeing the Guerrilla Girls and that many of her students are planning on attending the event.

"It's because the Guerrilla Girls are so compelling," Jones said. "The textbook is something that affects students each and every semester."

Aimee Kumer (senior-English and women's studies), Penn State's Women's Studies Honor Society president, said she is excited to see the Guerrilla Girls for the first time.

She said the gorilla masks the Girls wear are effective.

"It is more of a radical approach, maintaining anonymity," Kumer said. "I can definitely understand where they're coming from with it. The whole point of the mask is to shift attention away from themselves and onto the issues. They're trying to get away from that tendency to quote only Gloria Steinem and stop there."

Frida Kahlo said Friday's presentation would be an overall review of what the Girls have been up to, including their recent work in Venice.

There will be skits involving the audience, as well as a question-and-answer session.

For those who are curious about the identity of the women behind the furry masks, good luck solving that mystery.

The Guerrilla Girls have managed to preserve their anonymity for more than 20 years. However, there may be clues dropped here and there.

"I'm a Pennsylvanian," Kahlo said. "And I do want to visit the Creamery for some ice cream."