International Women’s Day (March 8th) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. The theme this year was #BalanceforBetter.
To celebrate this event l
For 2019 International Women’s Day, I wanted to take some direct action. So, I made an Objectification of women outfit to wear all day.
The cycle of objectification
The issue I am addressing is the objectification and commodification of women.
The base is a green skirt and purple top as per the International Women’s Day colours (white, purple and green). With it, I wore a necklace, headdress and a sash I had made.
The outfit is all made of recycled materials.
It uses bicycle inner tubes, wheel spokes and bike parts, broken jewellery, second-hand objects and curb-side barbie dolls.
The sash is reminiscent of a beauty pageant, yet echoes the idea that even though women may feel free to move, they are in many ways still ‘keep in line’.
The blondes are at the top, while the brunette (representing any/every ‘other’) is at the bottom of ‘the beauty hierarchy’.
The chocker necklace is made with
The headpiece mixes themes of gender expectations, worship, money, sex, religion, plastic surgery and armour together into a quasi-tiara-cum-pagan headdress.
What was the reaction?
I wore this outfit throughout the day. I was working across two Griffith Uni campuses on the day. This meant that I not only wore it at work and in my classes (much to the amusement of my students), but also around the academic office sand in any meetings I went to as well as on public transport going to and between campuses on the day.
The morning train ride was the most interesting. It was a packed peak-hour train and most people who were crammed in were still waking up. Some people looked at me as if I was crazy. It did take some guts to wear this on the early morning packed commuter train. We were sandwiched in and there was a big group of school kids who were standing behind me looking on incredulously when I asked a fellow traveller to take a quick photo.
I took a few photos throughout the day at different locations – like the one below with Captain Marvel which I just couldn’t resist– hilarious!
I was surprised by how many staff and academics asked for photos.
The students totally got it.
All day I had random calls of ‘good on ya!’, ‘Happy Women’s Day’ and ‘looks great!” which was lovely. I had a strapping young guy call out over the street ‘I love your headpiece!’ and wave, which was awesome.
I know I looked over the top.
I designed the headdress in particular to be a little provocative and to be a little uncomfortable to look at. I wanted my nose to ‘poke out’ between her naked legs.
There were a few design features I had built into the outfit that had a lot more meaning to it than you could get just by looking at it. The brave few who had the guts to come up and talk me were the ones who got to hear about all the intricate nuances, motifs and details.
As an ensemble, it is bright, unusual and low-tech. I wanted to mash lots of ideas together. A surprising number of people came up to chat to me about the outfit and to see it up close.
The outfit was a good way to start discussions about important women’s issues. I felt like this year I was raising eyebrows and raising awareness!
