The flower has often been used to represent femininity and sexuality. When a girl “gets her flowering” she has begun menstruating. If she is “deflowered” she is no longer a virgin. Artists and civilizations from all over the world have used flowers to represent a woman’s love and sexuality. The western world tends to use pure white lilies to represent a woman’s innocence, so much that the flower is tied to the Virgin Mary.  Flemish artist Jan (Velvet) Breugal used the closed garden to represent purity and innocence. Martin Heade’s still life paintings of magnolias represented female genitalia to the point where his work was thought of as explicit. Women started using this symbolism to their advantage in the 1960’s-70’s when feminist artists created work that represented female empowerment and sexuality. Georgia O’Keefe is famously known for her symbolic paintings. Judy Chicago coined the term “cunt imagery” as a reaction to the male gaze. She created a way for women to feel empowered and independent in their own sexuality, as opposed to being an object of desire used to satisfy men.

 

My goal for this sculpture is to comment on the stigma that is associated with a woman’s body, specifically the shame associated with her familiarity with it.  A woman’s worth used to be, and in many cases still is, determined by her purity. This represents the idea that her body is not hers to own.  Women are taught to cover themselves to ward off the male gaze. Some societies and religions force women to go through genital mutilation to “protect” and control them. “Defacing the Flower” has become a common term used for female genital mutilation as well. There is a negative association with a woman who is comfortable in her own body, she is thought of as “dirty” or slut shamed. We are raised to be embarrassed about ourselves. Because of this, some girls don’t learn about their anatomy and do not receive the education they need to prevent pregnancy or infections.