EMMA DYASON

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In a world where the President of the United States of America appears to encourage and accept misogyny, it’s not hard to see why others follow suit. When one of the most powerful men in the world makes ignorant and inappropriate comments about women (amongst other groups), is this leading to a rise in people doing the same?

 

It’s easy to hide behind a computer screen and make comments about a stranger across the world from you, without fully realising the effect this can have on a person, and here these are represented directly on female bodies as a way of showing how words can stick. The comments on the figures here were posted directly to me on a social media website after I uploaded images of semi-nude subjects holding up pictures of President Trump’s quotes about women.

 

Rather than discussing the nature of the quotes themselves, the majority of the comments instead attacked the physical appearance of the subject, and as such are shown here to be consuming the figures, eventually entirely suffocating them. The bandages are representative of illness and alternately of healing, of a society weakened by prejudices and fears, which can cause us to believe it is appropriate to comment on young women’s bodies as though we are entitled to them being here to please us. If we can instead change the focus to be on the content of the conversation as opposed to the appearance of those carrying out the conversation, perhaps then the healing can begin.