acrylic, ink; 16×20”
“Within my seventeen years of living, I’ve had many instances of other people doing and saying things to me that are rather… disgusting, to say the least. They have scarred me for the rest of my life. My experiences are why I decided to choose this topic. I would like to help prevent these awful things from happening to more people. Along with personal experience, I also did research about this topic. Through my research, I learned that many people have experienced things such as I have, most being women. Many people are coerced into doing things that they may not feel comfortable doing, especially by romantic partners. I also learned that sometimes people will use things to excuse their disgusting behavior towards others, such as saying that the other person was “asking for it”. I’m passionate about this topic because, as stated earlier, it is very personal to me. Throughout my whole life, I have been subjected to endless amounts of objectification, harassment, and even assault. This is the reality for so many other women. Innocence is being ripped away from people every day, all because of someone’s selfishness and greed for satisfaction. We, as a society, need to be better. So many women have to live in fear, fear that one day they will lose their innocence at the hands of someone they loved, someone they trusted, or someone they didn’t even know. We need to fix it, we need to stop the harassment, assaults, and disrespect of our fellow humans.”
ARTIST BIO: Piper Therien is a grade 12 student at Butler Tech School of Art studying art under art teacher Mary Catherine Ruby.