From the response to the previous image, I realised the idea of having different clothes around me sent out a message of confusion/uncertainty. The word "doll" came up too, and I know that I want my image to feel empowered, like I have made the choices involved and that the gender representation is fluid rather than confused. There were also religious connotations that came, and that is definitely not where my enquiry is stemming from. Hopefully this image will have some openness to it, but the title will put it in to context - and there will be some deliberate themes that I hope do come up. Here goes....
The copy:
ACTS OF SELF-LOVE
“Love doesn’t dominate, it cultivates” - Goethe
In some countries, my existence is a crime
Otherness is a crime in systems of hate
I offer love towards the self as a disruption
A loving disruption
To the policing of the queer body
At the intersection where many marginalised identities meet
my, your, their, our visibility
VISIBLE ABILITY
VISIBLY ABLE
TO LOVE ONESELF
Deep engaged self-love means acknowledging pain
Deciding to love onesself deeply
Deciding to love onesselves
Deciding to love oneselves in ways one is told not to
The parts that are hidden
The parts that I hid
The parts that don’t fit in to categories
The parts I abandoned
The parts that aren’t part of the constructs
Can reclamation of these parts mean a becoming? Something more complete?
I’m going to show you those parts
Here are the culminations of my death-defying acts
My experiments in how to love myself, queerly
Laid bare
In the hopes that if I show you mine, you’ll show me yours
My body as a site of protest
The gender-disrupter
(Queer) Self-love to disrupt (internalised) systems of hate