Meeting of the Minds

This digital collage represents an effort to make sense of the ways how popular language commonly refers to women using names of animals in order to insult them. Upon first consideration, this comparison rarely makes sense. However, the comparison is how the sexist hierarchy, which privileges men over women, and the speciesist hierarchy, which privileges humans over animals, collaborate with and build upon one another. In order to highlight the differences between the women and the animals that they are compared to, I used illustrations of women and photographs of animals. Neither representation is positive or negative - both are neutral. It is this neutrality of the woman-animal hybrids that enters into a startling contrast with the words which are paired with them in magazine-style font, such as "cow," "vixen," and "snake," which are commonly used to insult women. By layering the photos of the animal, the drawings of the woman, and the bold text of the terms, this collage seeks to challenge the viewer to find the connection between the subjects while also challenging that connection.

Visual Arts (Digital Collage)

Finn McAdams                                                                                                  Third Year, History Major with Minors in WGS and English