photo air – Flower City Arts Center

What Does Femininity Mean to You? Part 2

Something incredible is happening for me.

As I continue to explore and research feminine expression through a larger cultural context, the idea of femininity is starting to break free of gender.

Femininity does not belong to any of us, but it belongs to all of us. It is there as an opportunity to be expressed, enjoyed and embodied.

She is the primordial energy of creation and is for each of us

I was listening to a panel discussion held by my teacher and friend, Guru Jagat with Shaman Durek and actress Kelly Rutherford. At one point Shaman Durek calls for “The Liberation of the Feminine,” and that struck a truth cord for me.

You can watch the discussion titled, “Alchemy of the Empowered Woman,” here.

The cross-cultural and expansive reclamation of powerful feminine expression is driving our cultural shift right now. There is no doubt in me about that.

For me, it will continue to be a playful and critical analysis and expression of my own feminine alter egos and how my identity as a cis-gender woman has been informed by positive, toxic and co-opted expressions of feminine virtue.

She is an infinity expressed by each of us @meganjoymay

What Does Femininity Mean to You? Part 1

If you had a chance to join us on Instagram Live last week, you might have gotten the opportunity to hear me ask the question: What does femininity mean to you?

As I have been discussing the context of my work with others and getting reactions and responses, I am finding something happening with my own definition of femininity: it is softening.

I am softening to the process of what this work actually means to me and how it is likely going to change me over the next year.

A really big part of me doesn’t want to label anything as inherently feminine. That’s so binary!

Like, make-up is feminine, flowers are feminine (their predominantly hermaphroditic and a huge part of their reproduction process includes pollinators and seed spreading critters), pink is feminine or worse, feminine is emotional, irrational and weak.

These are the ways in which the Patriarchal Perspective has screwed my understanding, expression, and judgment of what it means to be feminine and express femininity.

I’m going to have to overcome some of my own unconscious biases and rejections of femininity within my own life and personhood. To be frank, that’s sort of scary and liberating at the same time.

I’ll finish off with this, which I was able to articulate while talking with Jason Wilder during his artist talk. Ultimately, we live in a dualistic paradigm with non-dualistic tendencies.

It’s a paradox.

I love a good paradox.

It is my measure to hold capacity for the both/and. ‘Both/and” means it is ‘this’ and is it ‘that’ simultaneously. In this case, concerning femininity, it is both definitive and continuously in a state of flux.

This gives me some room to play.

Exploring my Feminine side with the help of Instagram Filters

Plastics – Our Human Waste

Passionate about litter, plastic pollution?

JOIN ME!
When I started working on my personal project as a Photography Artist in Residence at Flower City Arts Center, I had no idea it would change how I see the world as much as it has. I mean litter, how original can I be with that subject? I photograph people…yet to my surprise I have raised my own awareness!! Excitedly the community is joining me in cleaning up our Lake Ontario shoreline and parks in Monroe County and beyond, you can too!

I will be hosting plastic picking pop-ups as a part of my upcoming exhibit Plastics: Our Weakness. Perhaps we can start a movement together.

Unlike mini Clean Sweeps these events will be freelance so to speak. You will need to provide your own gloves, nifty grabbers, and bags for sorting. I have no doubt plastic litter will inspire the artist activist in you!!
I’ll be in the north side parking lot along the shoreline, furthest to the east in a dark blue, rusty ford escape. Message me at arleen.thaler@gmail for more details!