Women For Trump, 2019, Laser-Engraved Veg-Tanned Leather, Hand-Stitched with Italian Patent Leather, 60”x 24”x 9”
Women for Trump is a commentary on the ways in which white women who voted for Trump have effectively enabled white male Republicans to utilize their presence in concerted efforts to both delegitimize the feminist liberation movement and lend legitimacy to the inherent misogyny and racism of conservative politics. This is the theoretical framework behind my decision to depict female Trump supporters as inanimate objects, materials that appear human but end up functioning as tools (hence the analogy of a sex doll) through which to further the dominant group’s goal and affirm men’s ownership over women’s bodies. The phrase “Women for Trump” has been laser-etched directly across the breasts in the same typeface that the Women for Trump organization uses on its t-shirts, effectively branding the doll. Its sexual features are constructed of Italian patent leather, capturing the viewer through eroticizing its corporeal form. The doll is limp and lifeless, passive to its owner.