Pecked Jostled and Teased
Princess Pea's existence can be explained as a potential antidote to the pressures of conformity, a force that is opposed to the absurd yet unquestioned standards of beauty to which women must aspire. "Princess" has dual significance, as a humanizing, subversive presence, and as a reference to the historical oppression of women by encouraging little girls to want to be princesses waiting eagerly for their prince, damsels in distress waiting to be rescued, socializing them to be precious and delicate, to be seen but not heard, to be obedient and subservient, to not upset the order of things, to not question authority, to perform the roles expected of them, to be daughters and mothers and grandmothers, all the while repressing their sexuality for the greater good of society, and most of all, to let their destinies be governed entirely by the powers that be.
Through her carefully constructed alter ego, our anonymous female artist seeks to challenge our conception of what constitutes femininity. Born out of her childhood insecurities, being continually pecked about being abnormally underweight while hearing her sister being chided for the opposite, and her failed artistic encounters with the concept of perfection, the giant, destabilizing head that is Princess Pea is an act of creative resistance.
