• Year: 1990
• Dimension: 60 x 17 x 7 ½ inches
• Medium: Stainless & Cloth (Sculpture)
• evoke an image of female body
• Clothing as a mediator between the body and culture
Women as a sexual object of men
• massive element at the base of the dress refers to testicle
• Maureen Connor: ‘‘it is about a woman as depository, as container. Men ejaculate inside of the women. This is clothing, so it could represent her interior as as a pocket.’’
• Woman has been portrayed as sexual objects no matter from which period: from the Renaissance artworks (completely/partially naked) to today’s mass media (e.g. present the stewardesses as beautiful and exotic females rather than their professional values)
• Male spectator gazing at the female as a passive & pleasurable sexual object (Male gaze on women)
• A see-through dress symbolizes an empty vessel of soul
• Tradition ideas in art: the body is a home of soul
• Postmodern idea: the human figure is emptied out by experience, there is no soul inside the body.
• The soul of women is emptied out by the social stereotype. They loss their identity and real meaning of life. Their sexual identity and how they see themselves are reshaped by the social experience and values.
--> female is an empty vessel of male.
Thinness as a highly valued characteristic of female body
• Evoke an extreme thin female body
--> extreme consequences of current fitness and slimming: anorexia & bulimia)
• Body is a sign of social meaning (stereotype of female presentation)
--> the mass media links the thin female bodies to successful relationship
--> a research from Michigan State University ( thin female characters in television programs are more likely to have a romantic relationship than the fat ones)
--> Thin body becomes a sign of successful relationship
• How does anorexia relate to art?
--> Maureen Connor destroys the cultural ideas and myth of thinness in a romantic relationship through negative presentation of beauty.
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