I remember walking towards the platform at 7:00am. I was being extra careful because I was wearing a dress. The hem hit the top of my knees, so I wouldn’t call it a short or provocative number. Yet a group of five men circled me as one of them got close enough to me to whisper, “Why aren’t you saying hello?” I froze for a moment, unable to answer anything. Instead I moved until the bus got there and I hopped on it as quickly as a I could.
There’s nothing special about me. There wasn’t anything particularly alluring if you had compared me with the other women standing there. The only difference was that I was wearing a dress. I bet that something of the sort has happened to you or you’ve seen it happen. Yet, try talking about gender inequality to anyone during a conversation, and you’ll be met with an eye roll while asking to calm down.
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on May 22, 2017 at 9:04am PDT
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on May 11, 2017 at 9:36am PDT
Most of the time we don’t objectify consciously. We see someone we like and, inevitably, we don’t think of them as a person. They’re a goal. This is both cultural and sociological, but how can we talk about these issues without losing the attention of the person we’re explaining it to? Well, Claudia Chanhoi has an idea: turn it into a funky little sex comedy.
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Apr 16, 2017 at 9:58am PDT
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Apr 11, 2017 at 9:16am PDT
In an interview with It’s Nice That, Chanhoi explains that she was inspired to create her works after being part of a project on female objectification. “(…) I wanted to explore the problem of gender inequality in a lighthearted way, so I created some erotic illustrations which were simple and colorful.”
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Mar 19, 2017 at 11:36am PDT
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Jan 15, 2017 at 9:44am PST
Claudia does dissect the idea of objectification, by slicing nipples or putting them in the most unexpected places. By ridiculing our society’s obsession with particular body parts, she proves how bizarre it all is. She also uses the typical fruits and vegetables related with specific bodily functions, as well as sexual context. The fact that most who observe the images will either blush or laugh shows just how objectification has become part of our everyday conversations and subtext.
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Dec 29, 2016 at 8:30am PST
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Jul 28, 2016 at 7:19am PDT
We no longer think of sex as “an encounter between two souls,” as it’s often referred as. We see it as a culmination of our desires and needs. As for the other person? Well, it’s nice that they’re there. Half of the time we barely acknowledge them, anyway. We’re blind to the fact that we objectify people we care about. We forget about their desires and focus on how they can help fulfill our own.
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Aug 10, 2016 at 10:15am PDT
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on Mar 13, 2016 at 7:20am PDT
Through the muffled giggles that occur when we encounter Claudia Chanhoi’s illustrations, we’re able to reflect how we turn people into objects. Or rather, how we take parts of them and make them our personal entertainment. We’ve taken the connection out of our bedroom equation. In doing so, we’ve become a society that isolates and objectifies. Pieces of the other person become identifiers for us to seek comfort in. When we realize what we do, we’re in the position to start reflecting why we do this to other people. How can we seek a true connection when we’re only dissecting, picking and choosing the things we like as if we were filling our bag of candy at the movie theater, rather than discovering another human.
A post shared by by Claudia Chanhoi © (@brainxeyes) on May 11, 2016 at 8:32am PDT
It’s fine to smile with Claudia’s images. It’s cathartic even. They’re so quirky that we can have conversations about it, rather than feel forced into a dialogue on gender equality. We can discuss why it’s funny and why it’s accurate. It will be a better dialogue than one where one party has to explain to the other, who’s not even listening anymore. It’s a visual way to consider what objectification creates.
You can check out more of Claudia Chanhoi’s work on her Instagram.
What ancient artifacts are you misinterpreting as sexual?
What’s inside your sex box?
Sources:
Hunger TV
It’s Nice That
