Nikita Wood

footwear that doesn’t fit your ideal

“One is not born a woman, one becomes one” - Marianne Thesander.

In order to be acknowledged as a woman, a person must first fulfil the social demands of femininity, which involve being subjected to scrutiny and treated as the lesser gender. The feminine ideal is a woman’s body, subject to control, a malleable, perfectable material. The Feminine (Un)ideal wavers for no one, a unique possession, yet it belongs to us all.

This body of work, inspired by the practice of Chinese foot binding challenges historical misogynistic social ideals that underpin this tradition. It is my opinion, that foot binding was one of, if not, the harshest body modification in history. Deemed as a beauty standard at the time, it limited a woman's freedom of movement thereby making her dependent on a male to maintain a decent standard of living. In a sense, women were bound and rendered smaller, much like their feet were.

Explain why we wear clothes that cause us pain.