about the project
My installation is very important to me as a female in American society. I came into this program knowing that I wanted to make something connected to the feminist movement. After hearing so many stories from female friends about harassment, I decided to create a piece commenting on man’s view of women. This piece highlights how often, when a man looks at a woman, he sees a body before seeing a person. This is evident in the way men talk and act differently around women than their own male friends. In these cases it seems that men don’t understand that women are also people, and should be treated as people, not prizes to be won.
In MORE THAN A BODY, The women hold their detached heads, almost as a hunter would hold a prize deer that was just shot for a photo. This also doubles as a mock advertisement. Mixed in with other ads for various products that feature women, this wouldn’t seem very out of the ordinary. It would take attention to be focused on the woman, not the body to see that something is terribly wrong. It is aimed more at men than women, because I would like it to serve as a wakeup call to the behavior demonstrated by the male population.
Once it becomes obvious to a viewer that the woman is not alive and her head is separated, it becomes grotesque. Men don’t realize that their actions affect women in this way mentally. With our bodies being used to sell products, or sold themselves, it is detrimental to women’s mental health, and with rape culture in existence, physical health. Misogyny needs to be stopped, and this piece is in an effort to allow men to see the skewed way they look at the women featured in it, and hopefully think about how they have treated women throughout their lives.