Day 6: Iphigenia Gras
Artist and musician Iphigenia Gras explores women in music through the penultimate day of her SHOWstudio Tumblr takeover.
Artist and musician Iphigenia Gras explores women in music through the penultimate day of her SHOWstudio Tumblr takeover.
sometimes being a woman comes with an expectation of being all things at one time, all the time. sometimes being a woman reminds me of the desert, where everything is beautiful but also sharp; everything’s learned to grow defenses. while I was being raised up as a young girl I was taught to brush my hair & make sure I was presentable before I left the house, but also to watch my back & walk tall & strong against those who’d try to fuck with me. I still carry that today - I’ll have a dress & lipstick on but also a knife strapped in my boot. I like the way the steel feels against my ankle.
CHELSEA WOLFE ON WHAT BEING A WOMAN MEANS TO HER
Being a woman is a creative experiment. Being a woman is rejecting and subverting popular demarcations of the category “woman.” Embodiment of the female sex takes on many forms and blurs the lines and boundaries of the category itself. In more simplistic terms it’s about redefining words like “feminine” and “femininity,” broadening them, and creatively reworking them through your own embodiment, and by honoring the embodiment of others. I search for archetypal representations of femininity that resonate with my temperament and body type. Being a woman means experiencing and feeling darkness on a regular basis, knowing that you are a target for violence and that people make ideological assumptions about you based on your gender and sexuality that have nothing to do with who you are. Being a woman means being a truth seeker. As a truth seeker you often venture alone. You take arduous and painful paths that deliver honest rewards. You walk into the dark often, trusting that you are not alone, but that you are witnessing the complexities multiplicities of life itself. It means self-preservation and self-protection in celebration of the preservation and protection of all life. It means speaking your truth and expressing what dwells in your bones, understanding that dominant forces will probably not support you.
Emily Jane White on What being a woman means to her
(I might cry)