Elana Adler http://www.elanaadler.com/index.php?/other-work/you-are-my-dutchess/If you've ever given a woman passing you on the street a compliment, let us ask you a question. Were you actually giving her a compliment, or were you lewdly suggesting she sleep with you? Forget lewdly, were you in any way suggesting she sleep with you?
Such is the subject of Brooklyn artist Elana Adler's project called "You Are My Duchess." She has amassed an impressively gross collection of catcalls from men on the street and has turned them into works of art. She chose embroidery because of the juxtaposition of the delicate and feminine presentation with the crude phrases, and the results are quite powerful.
"Each captures a moment, giving these words a visual presence, a power, and a state of concreteness. These words were hurled casually and heard quickly but required hours of time-consuming, careful stitching," she says about the series, named after one particularly memorable catcall. "The body of samplers is a contemporary and unexpected response to unsolicited and unwanted attention. They reduce the complex emotional experience of being heckled by catcalls to a simple piece of women's work."
Some of the phrases that Elana (and most likely countless other women) have had thrown at them while just trying to walk from point A to point B include gems like:
"Hello, Boo. Hot damn I could feast on you."
"Damn, promise you'll never go to the gym."
"Alright sweetie, nice ass."
"Why don't you talk to me, I'm not such a bad guy."
How could women not be honored by those romantic and sweet remarks?!
Adler writes on her website that although the pieces are meant to amuse you and maybe make less of the filthy and derogatory comments, she hopes the series as a whole has an impact regarding the practice of catcalling.
"You read one sampler. Perhaps you are amused, but as you continue reading and consider the body as an entire collection, the response changes. The inherent filth emerges," she writes. "It is a beautification of an assault. Perhaps in the moment these statements are meant to compliment, but most don't find vulgar, highly sexualized statements whispered or screamed at them by random strangers complimentary. Rather, they are an invasion of personal space."
To see more of Adler's work, you can check out her website. And to anyone who thinks saying stuff like this is "just giving a compliment" and women should just "lighten up," please think about how you would react if some random stranger on the street said something like this to your daughter, sister or wife: "Aw, baby. You running away? Whatever, you couldn't handle this. I'd f--k you up."