Subject not Object

I came across the work of Sally Nixon today. She specializes in illustrations of the everyday lives of women. In some pieces, you see the women themselves, captured in the moment. In other pieces, you see from their perspective, as they look at the world around them. In many ways, they are quite ordinary, but oddly enough, that's what makes them polarizing.

Nixon's work shows women being themselves, being humans and doing human activities. There are many pictures of eating, many pictures of poor posture, pictures of lounging and finding pleasure in simple things. One picture is of a woman brushing her teeth as she showers. Another is of a woman sitting on the toilet as her dog watches her. Normal, everyday things. And yet some people hate them.

It's actually interesting to watch as something that was probably not meant to be political becomes so. Just the fact that women are depictured as the subjects of the work, busy with their lives, and not as objects to be desired or admired, freaks people out. In fact, many can't help but criticize the Nixon's work because all the women are dumpy. Many are unshaven, saggy, small breasted, fat. The fact that this is how many, many women are in real life seems to not matter.

Other people have rather angry reactions to all the pictures of eating. There is a lot of complaints about all the food shown, which is strange considering most people eat at least three times a day. It's a big part of life. And yet, the idea of showing it makes people mad.

Personally, I find Nixon's work to be amazing. I love her illustration style and find the way she captures her subjects to have a lovely energy to it. A lot of artists will do 'edgy' things to try and get reactions. They'll use sex or violence or controversial topics to try and push the boundaries. The problem is, those boundaries have been pushed and pushed. What was once taboo is kind of common now, to the point of being worthy of little more than eye rolls.

But in a world that still wishes to objectify women when it comes to art, someone showing them as people who do common things DOES push the boundaries. It evokes tons of emotion in people, causing some of them to push back against the very idea. And that, oh my brothers and sisters, is what art is supposed to do.