I had a really nice time tonight.
Senior Capstone in Communication Design, Washington University in St. Louis
My senior capstone in Communication Design responds to the "Me, too" moment, where women finally have a space to talk about their experiences with sexual violence and coercion. I have been frustrated with how limited that space is, and how it does not allow for women to talk about the myriad kinds of sexual experiences—consensual ones, even—that are nonetheless damaging or disruptive to their sense of agency. I hoped to create that space with this project.
I focused on college campuses and worked with two main sources of texts for the book. The primary text is a short story from the New Yorker titled "Cat Person" about a college woman's less-than-ideal first date. The secondary text comes from a series of interviews I conducted with several college-aged women I know. By pairing a fictional work that resonated with many young women and several on-the-ground perspectives, I was able to identify recurring themes of performance and expectation. Even in the absence of explicit external pressure, many women were behaving in ways that did not align with what they wanted, but rather with expectations they believed others had for them.
With this in mind, I quoted from the publication style of early 20th century ladies' etiquette books. I was also inspired by feminist art of the 1970s that referenced femininity or domesticity, but with a sense of sublimated rage.
Illustrations adapted from Lillian Eichler's 1924 publication Etiquette Problems in Pictures.