Mid-terms: Johana Lira

Mid- term Intervention

"What You Call Me"

    My intervention deals with sexualization. This can happen to all genders, but I want to specifically talk about women and the struggles of being one. As a woman, I've gotten called horrendous stuff; it did not matter if I was wearing something revealing or not, men are just nasty. Honestly, it is not fair when men talk about our bodies and the way we dress, plus it is very normalized that even if a woman tells us about her horrible experiences with being sexualized, women and men will instantly think about whether she was wearing something revealing instead of thinking that the way we dress should NOT be a way to excuse that type of behavior. Another way that I feel like we often normalize using certain words to talk about women in a very degrading manner. For example, we often praise men when they have a lot of sexual interactions with different women; it is very normalized by society. BUT when a woman has the same or more interactions with men, she is called a whore or other degrading names. We do not stop and think for a second if those simple “words” will become traumatic for those of these women growing up. I did not have any inspiration from a particular artist. When I saw the assignment, I instantly knew that I wanted to do photographs and that I wanted them to be about women dealing with sexualization and degrading language. I decided that Valentina would have two different types of words taped on her face and body, one side being the hurtful words and the other side being the empowering side; Ashley would be the one taking off the tape with the degrading words and putting on more empowering words, a woman helping another woman out and making them feel worthy. As a woman, I have seen that between us, we tend to betray our own by talking badly about them behind their backs, calling them names by the way they dress, and not supporting our own; we are a solidarity, and we NEED to help each other out and stop agreeing with men and excusing them for mentally abusing us. I also printed flyers with a QR code that directs the viewer to a form, a safe place to talk about their experiences dealing with sexualization, a way to get that off their chest, all this is anonymous.

What You Call Me- Johana Lira.pptx