Sit However You Want

The transition from young girl to woman is full of rules and expectations. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents and neighbors all subtly propose and reinforce the behaviors they expect to see. Slowly these critiques, informed by some strange pre-established consensus, formulate the barriers we women create for ourselves. For many of us, that requires boxing in the person we really want to be.

The series “Sit However You Want” describes how the simplest of gestures can contribute to bias in society. While most women are not openly chastised for sitting ‘like a man’ in our social sphere, neither does it go unnoticed. There is still something in that silence. How we sit, eat or look can dramatically affect how we are perceived, but does it truly mean anything? No identity can be lumped into a category; we are all unique and benefit from a full spectrum of diversity. We each have so much to offer outside of the image that has been created for us. As painter Lisa Yuskavage also contemplated “I don't think my work is from a female perspective, but a Lisa perspective”, and with that I certainly agree.