The Prison Within
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This is a piece that I started working on in 2010. I revisited it from time to time, but just couldn’t seem to make it right, until now. This photo is a man’s perspective of the self-doubt that I believe women suffer brought on by our society framing a woman as just a body, telling her that her body isn’t right and portraying virtue only as a perfect body while simultaneously telling us men not to accept women as they are. Even in times when we start to pull away from this damaging set of false values and break away from artificial gender stereotypes, we have the movies, magazines, advertisements, television, etc. pushing us backwards again. I know that saying that it’s a “man’s perspective” sounds strange, but honestly, it is the only perspective I have. I have a great respect for women and I have always felt that time spent with women, intimate or casual, romantic or platonic, was a special kind of privilege. However, there are a great number of men in our society and beyond that view women as objects and lesser beings, men who believe it’s their right to take from a woman. Strong or weak, I do not know how a woman can walk around in a body that has become a symbol of sexuality and power, while drawing criticism and contempt from the opposite sex day after day and being told she isn’t ever going to be good enough without harboring at least a few times of significant self-doubt and wondering who she really is. I have seen friends suffer in this way, starting out perfect but jumping through hoops to be better. I can only imagine what that feels like, and this is my attempt to express it.
The stereoscopic version can be viewed below.