As an experiment in loosing control I had people in my life pick outfits out for me for a day. I could not control the image that the outfits presented, the way people interpreted this image, and even in someways the way this image changed my behavior.
These are the outfits that my mom and then 2 roommates Monica and Liz picked for me (respectively)
During the experiment I was interested in how I felt because of my clothing, and what I thought other people thought of me. I was very conscious of what others projected onto me because of my clothes.
I honed in on how so many important choices about my identity were flattened into the choice of how I presented myself. Flattened, like a paper doll.
Thinking about how projecting identity through the image communicated with clothing is portrayed as a specifically female preoccupation, I started to question,
What makes women worried about their image...or who?
What role do men play in womens' issues with body image?
In response, I tried to visually capture the unsettling questions that this experience made me I made me ask by creating magnetic paper dolls of myself and this experience, vulnerable and flat. I brought them to my boyfriends apartment, put them on his fridge and documented him playing with them.
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