I have never heard of a single confirmed case of harm caused by a clit. No matter, the organ is still stigmatized, rarely acknowledged in discourses of the body. Even babies are not supposed to have a clit that is too big lest it compete with the its homologue, the penis. What’s behind the aggressive repression of the clitoris? Maybe CLIT ENVY is the true social malady Freud should have warned of. Its capacity for pleasure. Its sensitivity, external and internal. Its autonomy. Its singular purpose of pleasure. Its insatiability. Its stamina. Its resilience. I can totally understand why this would be intimidating to people like Freud. (at Museum of Contemporary Photography)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNtFLjhlbe4/?igshid=1pyydslwrnvmv

Last chance to watch THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE at The Cleveland International Film Festival. Tickets are $10. Stream this award winning documentary film now - April 20th. 🎥 🍿 Link in the bio. #dilemmaofdesire #cliteracy #sophiawallace (at Cleveland International Film Festival)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsrbS4lfs-/?igshid=1uueac2dphrvp

TONIGHT! I will be speaking about my favorite subject w/ Historian Sarah Chadwick at The Museum of Contemporary Photography. The event is free, sign up at the link in the bio.
April 15th, 7pm CT 6pm EST
“CLITERACY EYECHART” ©️Sophia Wallace, 2012
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Cliteracy: Unravelling a Cultural Taboo
Description
Please join us as we unpack the hidden history and anatomy of the clitoris, and suppressive attitudes toward the sexuality of people assigned female at birth. Sarah Chadwick, author of The Sweetness of Venus: A History of the Clitoris (Wild Pansy Press, 2021), will be in conversation with multimedia artist Sophia Wallace, whose works seek to establish the clitoris in visual representation. This program is in conjunction with the current exhibition, Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency. (at Museum of Contemporary Photography)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsn6yPlQte/?igshid=a0epkfnqpzsq

On this #NationalComingOutDay, as two lifelong lesbians, @yvonnekawamura and I want to come out of the closet with more queer news.
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About a year ago, we decided to start trying to make a baby.  It was challenging, stressful, expensive and alienating almost every step of the way.  Choosing a donor and a method was hard enough, but going through our savings to pay for sperm and inseminations was even harder.  After trying IUI a couple times and out of money, we were unsure of what to do.

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At this point, Yvonne’s entire extended family, led by her Uncle, joined together to raise the funds so we could pursue our dream of creating our own family.  We were overwhelmed with gratitude that we could now push on with this crazy journey. Since I was 40 at this point, and with 5-11% changes of success per IUI we decided to ramp up to IVF now that we had the resources to pursue this technology.  

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Let me clear, IVF is no f**cking joke.  Getting 4 shots a day of hormones, daily blood draws & vaginal ultrasounds, was miserable. Yvonne came with me to every single appointment. She also overcame her fear of needles after I almost fainted giving myself the first shot in the tummy.  My stomach became increasingly bruised and swollen and my arms were black and blue too. We felt sad for so many of the women also in IVF hell, who were mostly alone and unsupported during the marathon of daily monitoring. One of the worst moments for me was when I was not allowed to have Yvonne with me during the embryo transfer after having suffered a traumatic egg retrieval. (Story for another day.) But she was there waiting for me, and despite my dismay we were successful.  

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Then came the waiting.  14 days, crossed out on a piece of paper, until we could find out whether I was pregnant.   Then on the evening of Pride, the night before our official pregnancy test with the doctor, we bought 2 home pregnancy kits.  We didn’t know what to expect.  We were  both were almost certain it couldn’t possibly have worked.

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But literally 5 seconds after we put the test sticks down, it became very real. We were pregnant.

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Happy Coming Out Day Everyone
🌈👶🏻🌈
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3fi5m2lHqw/?igshid=eki4ewlfe05p

SOLID GOLD for the summer.
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⚡️✨🌊⚡️✨
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Link in the bio. (at Brooklyn, New York)
https://www.instagram.com/p/By1kW1vlFuj/?igshid=1xk1uiotkmzm4

I made these posters in response to the state of reproductive rights in America. They are inspired by the audacity of the silent 50%. Those humans who produce sperm, have no desire to conceive when they partake in pv sex and yet somehow have never once taken a public stand for reproductive rights. Those complicit millions, who hold as natural fact, that sex for pleasure is their right and who our medical system conveniences, who have watched and done nothing while the 50% with wombs shoulder all the blame, stigma and shame for having sex for pleasure.
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Where are you? It’s time to stand with us.
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Shout out to the rare men who are going against the grain, writing passionate calls to action on social media, marching with us, donating to abortion funds. If only you weren’t so incredibly rare.
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Anyone who wants to put up posters in their city, please go to SophiaWallace.art > Get Involved
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⚡️ 🧿 ⚡️ (at Project For Empty Space)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byz-Vz7F8d2/?igshid=g39zedx0d1d0

We Are Here For The Repossession, II
Dyed Silk, Steel, Enamel
2019, by Sophia Wallace
Photo: Kris Graves (at Project For Empty Space)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxDQrCYFg-P/?igshid=biak3pop71d6

budgetdiva:

If taking a stroll through New York’s Central Park, one might see the statue of Dr. James Marion Sims. Known as the “father of gynecology,” His greatest achievement and claim to fame was curing the problem of the vesico-vaginal fistula. However, controversy exists because he found his surgical cure, use of silver sutures and speculum from performing a number of trial and error procedures on slave women from 1845 to 1849.

Since the mid- twentieth century, academia has debated whether Sims was an ingenuous doctor who furthered the progression of medical science for women or a 19th monster who conducted painful unethical experiments on women who couldn’t say “No.”

In 1993 Durrenda Ojanuga, Ph.D. wrote that the problem with Sims’ experiments were that he used the institution of #slavery to harbor human guinea pigs to perfect his procedures. Violating all concepts of human rights and medical ethics, the women were property subject to Sims’ trial and error experiments.

According to Ojanuga, such slave experimentation was not popular at the time. Rumors and whispers even began to circulate around town about the young doctor who kept experimental slaves. Other doctors would engage in experiments often using white patients with informed consent, according to Ojanuga. The slave women possessed no agency, no means to deny the upwards 30 operations endured for four years each. As property of their master, it was he who determined that they should be submitted to experimentation, not them.

Art history, so saturated with the female nude, lacks representations of the anatomical clitoris. The cis female body has been so sexualized over the centuries, yet the place where she actually experiences pleasure continues to be erased. The penis, in contrast, is celebrated from national monuments to contemporary museums, from bathroom walls to advertising billboards, selling everything from movies to hair loss treatments. Even in the history of queer art, the phallus has a prominent place and the clitoris has yet to find a corner on the map.
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Comment below if you are fed up with genital shaming of clits, vulvas & vaginas and believe you have a RIGHT TO THE TRUTH about your anatomy, a right to dignity in how your genitals are treated by society.
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Άδάμας (unconquerable)
2013
43 x 72 x 11 in.
©️ Sophia Wallace, All Rights Reserved.
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#sophiawallace #cliteracy (at New York, New York)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnBtGQih-Gu/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jj10jieru3t3

Exploring new configurations of
“We Are Here For The Repossession” 2018, sculptures in porcelain.
DM for availability. #cliteracy #sophiawallace (at New York, New York)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmtWEaZBIJT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1p0cyrvahzrqa

That time I photographed @jd_samson for @siegessaeulemagazin it was a hot summer day in Brooklyn, just like today. (at Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

So thrilled to see this opening photo from #CLITERACY at The Treehouse last night. It was an honor to show my work for the first time in Nigeria. Thank you @wuraogunji for curating CLITERACY into #ArtHopLagos. (at Lagos, Nigeria)