Project Description

Trio of Desserts (name not confirmed) is a three-part performance that looks closely into body image, using the idea of the male gaze.

The male gaze deals with gender power drawing close reference to media. What we are presented with in many films and music videos comes from male desires of the perfect female image. Women are shown in a sexualised way in order to adhere to what males want to see. They are always the object of the gaze rather than the owner.

For example lots of music videos today show women in an over sexualised way wearing little amounts of clothes and doing provocative dance moves. This sexualisation has resulted in many women today feeling insuperior. Plenty of women spend large amounts of time wishing they looked like the girls on screen and no wonder when beauty campaigns promise ‘celebrity results’. But, what I have learnt to realise over time is that looking like these girls is impossible. We can never become the women in the music videos or films because these women don’t actually exist. They are airbrushed, they have fashion designers, they have hairdressers etc.

My performance aims to address this sexualisation and turn it on its head by contradicting the idea of the perfect body image. I want women to understand these perfect body images we see on the screen aren’t real and as a result to all start to try and feel comfortable with who we are.

Each part of my performance uses different theatrical conventions but together holds a strong message.

The performance will get more colourful and musical as it goes on and as a result will reach a dramatic and effective climax.

The first part of the performance includes issues around weight and looks into the ‘perfect’ body weight, if one does exist.  Audience members will have to deal with issues around their weight and have to watch other audience members do the same.

The second part of the performance uses a performative style lecture to introduce my key issues to the audience. The audience will observe a documented version of a previous research performance I have undertaken. They will see through photography and the duration of the performance the personal struggles I went through and what I learnt throughout. This will result in the audience getting to know who I am and help them relate to the issues in the piece.

This performative lecture aims to do this by engaging with the key issues in a fun and vibrant way. I will be using upbeat songs from different musicals, care free bedroom dancing and perhaps some audience participation for them too to feel care free and fun.

The final part of the performance is the most dramatic, contradictory and colourful. In this part of the performance you will see the climax to the whole piece. You will see an; overdone, sparkly costumed, high heeled, sexualised women on stage. Using the idea of musical theatre you will hear a song from ‘Guys and Dolls’, and see this sexualised female figure perform, whilst stripping back to her natural form. As she strips back you should see the performance improving, thus showing how make up and over the top clothes can only give you confidence to a certain extent.

We have to be happy with who we are!

As the audience get to know ‘who I am’ in the second part of the performance, this final contradictory image of song and ‘strip back’ will help the audience see the journey I have been through and then relate the message to themselves and their own confidence issues.