After the pain comes glory, womxn what is your power?
It’s fucked up how womxn are treated with close to no respect and to witness it everyday is draining almost all of me. From our own mothers, to sisters, to friends and concluded with our own lovers.
In turn we as womxn ourselves contribute to our own discrimination as we suffocate against the walls of patriarchal systems. However what we are not taught is that if not all then most is to be blamed on years of the psychological enslavement that defines your role in society.
From these issues rose the idea for a conceptual shoot, inspired by a poem written by Zintle Ramano.
This is ‘Power Femmes’.
Power to the girls who participated in absorbing the poison from toxic relationships just to be told that they were never enough.
Power to the girls who lost themselves and esteem in the process of trying to be enough.
Power to the girls who woke up with bruises along their thighs and spent nights in beds with broken spines.
Power to the girls who could not find the strength to opt out in time because dysfunction disguised itself as love
Power to girls who suffer from anxiety and depression in relationships where your body becomes a vessel and your partner can’t understand how much you cave into yourself every time ‘I love you’s’ are spewed.
Power to the girls without father’s. I see you, in a world where men will try to steal your dignity, take advantage of your vulnerability and your being naive.
Power to the girls who never loved in halves but their last experiences of trauma and abuse turned their hearts to stone.
Power to these girls because they deserve to be loved the most.
Power to them because, i am one of many.
Definitions:
Femme: A non-heterosexual womxn whose appearance and behavior are seen as traditionally feminine.
Womxn: Of two ‘x’ chromosomes born from womb into a society that made her woman.
Power: The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events.
Credentials:
Photography by Tinuke Eboka Models: Misa Masokameng and Zintle Ramano. Styling and Makeup: Misa Masokameng and Zintle Ramano