Touch Assignment

 

The Body Is a Cage, Windsor Ink, Bristol Paper, Human Hair,  8 in. x 8 in.

“Women tend to be smoother-fleshed than men, so it makes sense that we would shave our legs and apply lotions to accentuate the gender difference. But despite efforts to remove hair from our bodies, quite a lot remains on the arms, faces, and heads of women, and the chest, arms, and legs of men, to do what it was intended to do.” (87)

Societal pressures have put a harsh stigma on how hair is supposed to be represented in the public eye. Society has shamed women for having body hair for decades upon decades. Women feel as though if they do not shave the hair on their body where it naturally grows that they are unworthy of love or companionship. Although hair grows naturally on almost every surface of our bodies, when women decide to grow out their armpit hair, pubic hair, leg hair, or facial hair, it suddenly becomes a grotesque topic of discussion. It has become more normalized with the upcoming generation that shaved hair or not that women are deemed beautiful regardless. However, there is still a large portion of society that has not come around on this topic of hair growth or not growth. Oftentimes women feel the need to mutilate themselves in order to fit into society’s normalized constructs. 

Our Bubble Is Our Skin, Photography, 8.5 in. x 11 in.

“The bubble is our skin. But the skin is also alive, breathing and excreting, shielding us from harmful rays and microbial attack, metabolizing vitamin D, insulating us from heat and cold, repairing itself when necessary, regulating blood flow, acting as a frame for our sense of touch, aiding us in sexual attraction, defining our individuality, holding all the thick red jam and jellies inside us where we belong”. (67)

Our skin is the utmost important outer barrier that a human body has protection from with the outside world. Our skin protects us as if it were a bubble surrounding our innermost souls. The body is connected in a few parts that all generate within the same blueprint: the skin, the mind, and the soul. The skin protects the outermost layer of each person we see on our every day basis, and acts as the glue in which contains each person intact with their person. The mind is the central working of each person and acts as a control system for every human being. The mind controls more than we think, and a life can be taken if the mind is ever compromised. The soul is the nucleus of each person, and is the only thing within each person that has the potential to cross over from one dimension to the next. The soul moves through time and personal experiences, and can have the ability to easily transform from one dimension in the moment, and in an instant be transcended into the next dimension.