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. 07
am an outcropping. Body Compositions I-IV Virgil B/G Taylor 08
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