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Not Your Body
When I was four years old my mom became a born again Christian. I was taught to be ashamed of my own body and sexuality. Not Your Body is a personal political statement affirming that bodily autonomy is an innate human right. In our society patriarchal sexual politics tries to control women’s bodies through health care and simultaneously fails women with lenient sentences for rapists along with ignoring that one in three women will be sexualy assulted in her lifetime. The Christian Right and patriarchal systems try to silence and control women. The national normalization of sexual assault came to its height with the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. “Grab them by the pussy" are his words of sexual assault. The tradition of silencing the female was challenged by every woman, man and child who came together to speak our truth against sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, racism and anti-immigration ideology as we marched together at the Million Women’s March on January 21st, 2017.
For the piece Not Your Body I choose to reference my own nude body. It is made with charcoal and acrylic on hand dyed blue fabric. Hand cut red fabric letters are stitched on the the figure's torso spelling out Not Your Body. Wearing this piece at the Million Women’s March was an act of defiance and performative art in collaboration with my fellow marchers.
Colleen Kelsey - Statement written January 28, 2017
When I was four years old my mom became a born again Christian. I was taught to be ashamed of my own body and sexuality. Not Your Body is a personal political statement affirming that bodily autonomy is an innate human right. In our society patriarchal sexual politics tries to control women’s bodies through health care and simultaneously fails women with lenient sentences for rapists along with ignoring that one in three women will be sexualy assulted in her lifetime. The Christian Right and patriarchal systems try to silence and control women. The national normalization of sexual assault came to its height with the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. “Grab them by the pussy" are his words of sexual assault. The tradition of silencing the female was challenged by every woman, man and child who came together to speak our truth against sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, racism and anti-immigration ideology as we marched together at the Million Women’s March on January 21st, 2017.
For the piece Not Your Body I choose to reference my own nude body. It is made with charcoal and acrylic on hand dyed blue fabric. Hand cut red fabric letters are stitched on the the figure's torso spelling out Not Your Body. Wearing this piece at the Million Women’s March was an act of defiance and performative art in collaboration with my fellow marchers.
Colleen Kelsey - Statement written January 28, 2017
