For this piece I found a really great article from Berkeley that discusses the link between clothing and rape culture. Although the article was focusing more on school dress codes it did discuss the generalizations the outside world often makes about women based on what they wear. Rape victims are often blamed for the crime because of their outfit. People say that because she was wearing a short skirt or otherwise revealing clothing that she was “asking for it.” Our society has perpetuated a mentality where, when men see a woman wearing promiscuous clothes, they assume she’s down to sleep with them. When a woman is wearing skimpy clothes she’s leading guys on. The picture used in the Berkeley article describes my piece very well. It’s a picture of a woman with a sign that reads “My dress is not a YES!” I created a piece that visualizes the mentality that short shorts mean yes, when in fact they do not. My piece depicts how women’s clothing is frequently seen as consent. This is an idea for an art piece that I’ve had for a while. Ever since my English 12A class last trimester, when we were discussing feminism and rape culture, I’ve had an idea for an art collection called “Boys Will Be Boys.” Boys are usually let off the hook for leering at scantily clad women because they are boys and “can’t control their urges.” Boys will be boys and it’s a woman’s job to combat their gaze and sexual impulses. I have a few ideas for art pieces that relate to this but one of them was to create a piece where a girl’s shorts are created from the word YES. Since that idea relates to clothing I realized it would be a great piece to create for this project. I painted it in acrylic paint on canvas. There’s no specific reason I chose this medium. I’ve been really into acrylic painting lately and I felt like the paint would give me the sort of messy look I was going for yet still have bold, contrasting tones. Overall I’m pretty happy with it. It turned out exactly like I pictured it. I wish the lines were a little crisper and the hands looked a little better, but I really love the sort of messy, rustic background with the visible paint strokes. I think it accurately conveys my message.