Tester

archy and the male ego, we do not
actually want them to have control
and ownership of their bodies. If a
woman looks as if she spends time
working out, she has a man’s body;
if a guy spends too much time on
his appearance he is effeminate.
We approve of people who “pass”
in the gender they identify with, as
we can see with the media reaction
to Caitlyn Jenner, but, in general,
we shame other members of the
Kardashian/Jenner family for the
aesthetic plastic surgery they pursue.
I think that anyone who gets
plastic surgery should be considered
a designer. After all, they are
striving to create an ideal thing of
beauty, just like an artist.
I read an article by Karley Sciortino
a while ago called, “Why do
we like having sex with artists?”
(The title really should have been,
“Why do straight women want to
have sex with successful, attractive
male artists?”) Sciortino writes
about the time she participated
in Prince’s Frieze Art project: she
wore a bikini top and short shorts,
and waxed his fancy car. She enjoyed
it and also resented it when a
woman tried to hand her a sweater—waxing
a car will make you
hot—and I can understand why.
It sounds like hard work, but the
attention could be validating. Sciortino
went on to explain that she
wanted to be a muse, a dream she
seems to have achieved. There is
nothing unfeminist about wanting
be a muse. What is unfeminist is
the idea of a non-consensual muse.
The muse who is striving to use her
body to inspire herself, the muse
who is seeking to profit off her
own body, only to have it snatched
from her and placed in a non-consensual
context, the credit for all
her bodily labor taken by someone
else.
As an artist, I want credit for
any time my body is used. If a guy
jacks off to my picture on Instagram,
I want a check in the mail.
But being realistic, I know that
many muses are non-consensual,
and will never receive credit. So
what do we do if we don’t want
others to profit off our bodies? My
only advice is to make your body
as unprofitable as possible. If you
are in a place where this feels safe
and comfortable, don’t give a fuck
about “passing.” Don’t work out.
Get fat or maybe don’t – that can
backfire. Don’t brush your hair.
Don’t even think about make-up.
Get really nasty, obvious plastic
surgery. Dress up like an animal all
the time. In other words, get ugly. I
mean really ugly, don’t get “riot girl”
chic, don’t get alt, don’t get edgy,
get unattractive. It’s tricky, because
ugly is in the eye of the beholder,
but I have faith in us. And maybe,
if you get just ugly enough, no one
will want to snatch your body for
their art.
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