#interchangeableparts

The poster that started it all! 

NEW SHOW STARRING 2 FULLY DRESSED MAN & 1 PHOTOSHOPPED GIRL’S ASS! 

NOT EVEN YONCE’S HEAD IS SAFE

EVEN IF YOU’RE JUST A PAIR OF LEGS, MEN STILL COWER IN FEAR

Interchangeable Parts

ABOUT THE HEADLESS WOMEN PROJECT & THE THEORY BEHIND IT:

Started by @MarciaBelsky, the Headless Women project seeks to bring attention to the still standard practice of fragmenting, fetishizing and dehumanizing the images of women we see in film, TV, book covers, advertising, and more.

By decapitating the woman, or fragmenting her body into decontextualized sexual parts, she becomes an unquestionably passive object to the male gaze. The question of her consent is removed completely alongside her head, and her purpose becomes solely that of being looked at by men obediently. Her value is that only of her sexual appeal to men, and not of her personhood.

These images, used as an advertisement trope for years, teach our minds to be signified that a woman’s separated and sexualized parts are one and the same thing as a sexual woman herself.

The consistent fragmentation of women’s bodies, with particular focus on the boobs, butt and lips, separates the sexualized female body parts from her wholeness. Thus, as fragmented parts, the viewer does not have to morally reconcile the woman who is being objectified with her complete humanness.

The head is first and foremost the thinking part of the human body, where our motivations and feelings are located. So, these images we are bombarded with on a daily basis tell us persistently that women’s thoughts, feelings and personal agency either don’t exist or are of no interest.

Further, facial features are the way we recognize other people. It’s the face that makes us individuals. That too is taken away, and we are taught that all women should strive for an ideal that will make us the same and interchangeable.

We are made numb in pop culture to female bodies remaining background to male-centered action. A right for men to focus on or ignore, but always there if and when he so chooses. And always there explicitly, first and foremost, for his intent.

The overwhelming presence of these headless women in the images we see both perpetuates and is symptomatic of the overall still too prevalent idea that women exist primarily for the sexual pleasure and purpose of men.

“The male gaze, which refers to the lens through which mostly white, heterosexual men are viewing the world, is a lens of entitlement. It’s entitlement to all of the privileges awarded to the gazers, entitlement to view women (and even touch them!), and to discuss and exploit their bodies without consequence” – Everyday Feminism, 2013