"it will never be enough"

I don’t know if this is considered a “bodily autonomy” issue, but it definitely is a “society’s perceived gendered behaviours” issue. My experience with this growing up mostly consisted of verbal sexual harassment, and people (mostly boys my age) “taking a peep at my body” to put it generally. I was never physically hurt. But whenever I looked to a trusted adult for help, they would reply with “that’s just how boys behave”, or even, egregiously, “he just has a crush on you :)” and did nothing else. I felt stuck, and unconsciously built up this mindset that the only way to stop the harassment was to wear more modestly. Not understanding sexual attraction meant that every time I got harassed, I updated my list of “provocative” clothing and avoided wearing them. It got to the point where I would just cover myself from head to toe. And one day, I got catcalled again. And something in me physically snapped. I can’t properly explain the rationale behind the artwork, only that it describes what I felt at that exact moment. That whatever defences I could come up with will always fall short. It’s a systemic issue. And I’ve had it.

– Quynh Anh Nguyen