Beard Envy 

      “It’s hard to brush your teeth and cry

at the same time:

the flagellation of the bristles

and the determination to be thorough

demand attention.

There’s also something comic

about a tear-streaked face

and foaming mouth;

the grimace in the mirror looks like

a mime’s exaggerated

anguish, as if you

were only practicing grief.”

             -       “At the Mirror” by Bart Galle

Issues of gender have always intrigued me, as they’re something we come implicitly in contact with in our everyday lives - those things never said, just accepted or understood. What are the differences between the ways males and females experience the world? What boundaries exist between the sexes, and why? What makes a man attractive? What makes a woman desirable? How did these standards come to be? I used “Beard Envy” to explore self-image from the feminine sphere while employing an extremely masculine symbol, a beard. The generally symmetrical balance of the scene where I apply my beard belittles the strangeness of the situation, while the emphasis on my mouth throughout the piece is both sexual and repulsive. Acts of eating, hygiene, beauty, and self-loathing riddle this video…just another day in the life.