RECENT WORKS

Through this piece I wanted to capture the ideas of the original artist of the monument called “Women’s Rights Pioneer”. A lot of research went into this monument as well as the sculpture that I created. I wanted to focus on the influential women involved with the Women’s Rights movement, since there were many hands that touched these rights. Learning how the women interacted back then or how they would interact with women now was a concept I was thinking about. We can’t go back in time to meet these people but we can read and reflect on what they were fighting for. With this sculpture I want to focus on connection, with our past and history overall. Specifically, how do we reach into our past to remember what those women went through and how do we embrace ourselves today and empower others tomorrow.

“A Bedroom Memory”

October 14, 2024

I am focusing on the over sexualization and objectification of women. From my research I realized that in most instances women perceived as more open to casual sex are attributed less mental capacity and less moral status. I also read that participants in studies relating to objectification tend to associate attractiveness with greater mental and moral status in women, but we find only limited evidence that perceived age influences objectification. Most research finds that both men and women perceive sexualized women as lacking in certain human qualities such as mental capacity and moral status. The mechanism underlying this effect, however, is unclear. Most women who wear tighter clothes or more revealing clothes are seen as less competent. This denial of mental capacity and moral status has been found to have negative repercussions for objectified women, increasing men’s willingness to commit sexually aggressive actions, decreasing perceived suffering in cases of sexual assault. Noting all these facts about how the appearances of women “encourages” men to perform horrible acts to women since those women “lack the mental capacity” to do anything.

Women can often feel vulnerable and used post sexual experiences. This isn’t to say that all sexual experiences are rape, but there can be mixed feelings after an intimate experience. Sometimes intentions that were established in the beginning can change once the experience is over. There is such thing as post sex depression; “Postcoital dysphoria (PCD), also known as postcoital tristesse (PCT), is a condition where you feel anxious, depressed, or even irritable after sex or masturbation. In some cases, you might even have a panic attack.” This feeling could be due to guilt from what you did or past experiences and trauma. Women’s experiences before, during, and after sex differ a lot from how men handle situations. I have a lot of ties to this subject matter and think that this is something that is getting talked about more openly even though it still happens often. I want to try and create a familiar space that would demonstrate the casual yet stressful environment of a sex scene.