3 illustration entering @notforprint, from Jacquell.
Watercolor on Fabriano paper.
I've always have this thought in the back of my head about how female bodies are being used. justified and restricted in reality and on social media because it did not meet society's definition of "decency". And to be frank, I absolutely don't buy it.
Everyday, I see women stripping to advertise for a bag, a dress, a pair of bikini; I see women dance for men's pleasure on movies and music videos; I see people using our bodies to gather attention and to make money from the perfected and corrected figures that went through layers of censorship. To the level where seeing naked or half-naked body has become a norm. And meanwhile, female bodies are still under heavy judgments of the misogynists and the so-called society.
The idea of women's bodies and "decency" cannot be defined and judged by a small group of man who allowed rape culture, provoking acts and videos of girls twerking, mimicking sexual activities running rampant on youtube while taking down pictures representing an idea, a voice, a statement; preventing women from taking control over their own body.
If you think about it, female body is a very strong subject to address an opinion, an expression. We've seen celebrities stripped for environment, for women's rights, for anti-war movements, for LGBT community, for charity campaigns. That doesn't come for free, it requires power and popularity and solidarity from women across the world who strived to win the respect from the world where a majority of women still being treated like sheeps. The thin line between decency and indecency are belonged to and should be defined by us. We know our bodies and our boundaries. We're not a subject to be fixed and corrected. We know the difference between nudity and porn and we know that our bodies are not a taboo, a forbidden subject to be flagged, taken down and humiliated by anyone.
I've came across many interesting articles regarding the issue between women and censorship. The more I read, the more my eyes were opened. We were not censored for the sake of public decency, we were censored to serve a certain aims and certain objections. We were told by someone, or the "society" about what we can do and what we cannot.
"If the Internet mimics real life then there is no doubt that real life can mimic it. That if we allow ourselves to be silenced or censored it can happen in real life too." - Petra Collins, 2013
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