Love Yourself
My project is a performance art about society's expectations for women. While growing up, the media have always portrayed women with skinny bodies, clear skin, and docile personalities as the pinnacle of beauty. Our families or peers also tell us we can't act like this or that because that's not what girls do. Those events have stuck with us into our adulthood however we chose to be true to ourselves for our happiness. I was inspired to do this intervention by our class conversations about “Understanding Patriarchy”, “As their daughter, I was taught that it was my role to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking to nurture others” (Hooks 18). It reminded me of what adults told me as a child when I played too rough or acted like a boy. I created a shirt representing our doubts and pride with these women's comments about themselves. The back represents the lingering thoughts about our insecurities while the front represents what they take pride in. The goal is to let these women know they are not alone and that they should be proud of the person they are today.
I aspire to be an art therapist and this project helped me connect with participants. I'm still unsure how I would like to help my clients, but when a group has a common issue, they are more willing to discuss it. It makes them feel better knowing that other people are experiencing similar problems despite how bad it sounds. When I heard America Ferrera's speech during the Barbie movie reminded me how contradictory these expectations are. Moving from the past is difficult for some people, “History makes us, whether we like it or not. Where we have been shapes who we are now, as well as what we can imagine for the future” (Duncombe & Lambert 129). We will always be reminded of comments about our bodies or attitudes however I want to learn how to deal with insecurities.
Normally, I don’t like going up to people I don’t know however I think it went well. There were a lot of interesting conversations even for those who did not participate. A common topic is we don’t like people pointing out our flaws because we already know. Doing so makes us more insecure, closed up, or aggressive. I noticed that it’s easy for women to pick a trait they dislike about themselves or something someone told them but it’s difficult to compliment themselves. If I knew the participant, I told them a list of things I enjoyed about them but if I didn’t, I asked their friend. It became enjoyable for both parties because the participants looked like they felt better about themselves, and I like helping people. Some women felt uncomfortable writing on my shirt when I started it until other women wrote something down first. I did not make any designs on the shirt at the time, so the participants didn’t feel intimidated and drew my design around the writing.
I wanted to do an intervention with a shirt because I think clothes are a form of protest. The Art of Activism chapter three talks about the importance of the clothes you wear when protesting, “The principle: style matters. People associate the message with the messenger, and how we appear in public communicates a message that is often more powerful than the words on the pamphlets we hand out” (Duncombe & Lambert 109). I couldn’t find artwork that used clothes to send a message, but I found inspiration for design and text. The Clothesline created by Monica Mayer; distributed pink postcards to women in Mexico City to talk about what they hate about the city. Most responses contained sexual harassment or abuse, which brought attention to these women's untold stories. My designs on the shirt were inspired by Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe's artworks. I like to incorporate flowers into my artwork because of certain flowers' meaning and their beauty. I decided to put flowers that mean being happy with who you are while the wilted flowers mean limited and sadness. These artists' flower artworks made me think about how I want to set it up. Barbara Kruger's art contains bold words to challenge gender roles or consumer culture. I thought it would be cool if the participants added something to their comments like a smiley face. It wasn’t required to do that, but it was a nice touch, and I gained a little insight into who they are as people.
The Front
The Back
- Understanding Patriarchy by Bell Hooks
- Guerrilla Girls
- America Ferrera: Read America Ferrera's Full Barbie Movie Monologue (townandcountrymag.com)
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