By Ani Liu. The female body has long been a site of contention, where opposing ideologies in religion, politics, and cultural differences often play out. The female body has become a vessel by which systems of ideas are manifested. Can a woman vote or serve in the military? Can she wear pants, or must she be veiled? Does she have agency in deciding her own reproductive health choices?
Reflecting on the cultural and scientific discourses that shape notions of the female body, this project challenges the status quo. In an expression of female empowerment, a woman control something inherently and symbolical male: spermatozoa (sperm). Through the use of a brain-computer interface, she controls the movement of sperm with the agency of her thoughts.
While at first glance the idea of controlling sperm might be absurd, it is my hope that it causes the viewer to reflect on the very real absurdities of control happening to the bodies of women. Genital mutilation, forced sterilization, sexual abuse, rape, and contraceptive regulation currently occur as forms of control projected onto female bodies. In creating a subversive counter-narrative to these practices of control, this work presents a hope for reimagining and shifting our notions of gender.
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