HORNED CAGEE AND MAIDENLY HOSTS
This body of work entitled “Horned Cages and Maidenly Hosts” grapples with the inescapable confines of femininity by delving into two polarizing positionalities within female labor. Motifs of both Sex Workers and Sisters (Nuns) are adopted as a visual and conceptual framework for subversions of ideas connected to female labor, stigmatization, sexualization, and degradation, in order to eventually reach liberation. This look is made up of four components: a habit, a halter nighty, lingerie, and lace-wrapped horned cages. The habit falls to meet the sheer chiffon nighty, worn over the ruffled lace lingerie and met at the arms by the imposing, horned cages which are mummified in lace, holding captive the wearer within. As a child who had to reckon with my mother’s economic opportunity through stripping, I visualize sexual labor in opposition to traditional ideals imposed by the Church in society. I confronted ideas of the supposed shame I should have regarding my family history, denouncing them through a garment that highlights, virtue, beauty, and sensuality simultaneously.