A political issue I want to utilize in this project is the depiction and sexualization of the female form in media, government, and by the gaze of the public. This is mainly because Korea is extremely conservative and underhand misogyny is heavily present in the entertainment industry. I was often discouraged from wearing certain outfits or wearing too much makeup from both Korean and American culture out of looking “immodest” or even “prostitute like”. I want to raise question if not changing the perspective of society why it is acceptable for external influences to control my physical appearance and even sexualize it, but when I choose to do so, I am disgraced. The constant need to conform to a standard imposed by people who don’t know who I am appalls me, and the fact that it is targeted specifically to women is just as offensive. Spycam pornography and secretly recording women is a very prevalent issue and it comes at the expense of the privacy of women–and it is not fair.
I decided to upcycle a corduroy jacket from J.Crew and a pair of old black jeans to create a babydoll dress/lingerie dress. I intentionally chose to use outerwear garments that were considered casual to make an intimate garment. Lingerie serves as a sex symbol in a variety of cultures and alludes to intercourse, which should never be a punishment for either man or woman. However, due to the state of the Korean entertainment industry and its normalization of using women as sex objects, I wanted to make sex a disrespected, casual act. By using outerwear as an intimate garment, I wanted to communicate that spycam porn became normal in Korean society due to patriarchal constructs.
