Another protest performance piece I did but this time outside Hooters... Some folks might wonder to themselves, what's the difference between Hooters presenting women as sexual objects and some of the art I myself make... The answer is simple, the erotica I make involves me being subject, verb and object. Not subject to the idealised notions of femininity and hyper sexualisation of the misogynistic society we live in that aims to turn me into a dolly with a button and a key - an object, to be raped, abused, used and generally not paid or represented anywhere near enough. My erotica is not about the male gaze. My stats whilst I was on Instagram, which gave you amongst other stuff a breakdown of the gender of your followers and people who engaged with posts, showed me that my erotica was mainly engaged with and liked by women. Result in my mind. The reason being that I present an image of autonomy and self possession. In direct opposition to the Hooters imagery of woman and womanhood. Uniformity. Pornified sexuality. Simpering. Barbie doll esque. Servitude.
Moving on, here are the two clips I made and there write ups.
In the light of the #metoo project, which has highlighted the sheer volume of women and girls who have survived rape and sexual assault or harassment, i was reminded in my feelings of anger and sadness of the existence of Hooters... for many, they are just a harmless bit of fun, bit of slap and tickle, no harm being done... except, when you look at how they are ultimately, presenting the idea that women are there to look pretty and serve, it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to understand that this type of casual objectification of women, this placing of the idea of women as objects rather than subjects, deep into the psyche of the society that allows them to exist and trade as a family style establishment. THIS is is the sorta shit that is at the heart of the high occurrences of rape and sexual harassment. Cos men and boys are surrounded by messages telling them that women are not equal to them...
As with my last dance, this is in support of the many women worldwide who have been subject to sexual abuse, be it catcalling or rape, or anything in between. We need to look at the aspects of society, the institutions we take for granted as normal or harmless, that are inherently damaging to all of us really. They advertise themselves as having waitresses with ‘short shorts’, and ultimately use a particular (mainstream pornified) version of female sexuality to sell their products. They tout themselves as a family style restaurant and ultimately completely normalise the degrading and disturbing way in which they objectify women and womanhood. Is it really any wonder that rape and sexual assault are so prevalent when women are so blatantly objectified in a slick (respected) chain establishment such as this? Hooters is not the only problem of course... but for some reason i felt drawn towards there today... their very existence sticking in my throat like a thorn...
