Exploring Female Pelvic Symbolism in Art

Art update!

A little update on my latest projects!
So I recently put this little piece up on my Instagram, which was a piece originally inspired by a word game I have been playing with my partner.

Sometimes when it’s bedtime, and I happen to get the late night zoomies and find myself unable to relax – my partner will initiate this game called “animals”. It’s a very simple game – one person starts by naming an animal, for example “Gorilla”. Then the next person has to name an animal starting with the same letter as the first animal ended with. So maybe the next one would be “Antelope”. So on and so forth. Until you get tired enough you can sleep!

It works surprisingly well despite how much of a dork I end up feeling like, because I simply love trying to think of how many animal names I know.

But either way! This started as me just wanting to draw one cool animal for every letter in the alphabet. An undertaking I probably won’t complete.. But either way this is the Aardwolf! A little description of it can be read on my instagram post:

The symbolism in the artwork

As I started working on this art piece though, I started thinking. Not so much about aardwolves, but about something that has been on my mind for a while. Which is the female pelvic bone.

Maybe a little bit of an odd thing.
It started a while back with a painting I was working on called “I just want to be your favorite”.

This painting drew on a lot of thoughts around relationships and the roles you take on in them.
Many times my mind went specifically to a very abusive relationship I was in a couple years ago.

It’s interesting how you sometimes strive so hard to be somebody’s “favorite” even when it’s bad for you. It can happen even it’s someone you hate.

And I think the part that stuck with me the most was that “want” to be the best sexual partner. There has been so much pressure on how you are supposed to be as a woman – not that there isn’t for men as well. But I am currently only reflecting on my own perspective.

Growing up I pretty much learned about sex and sexual relationships from porn. And online articles from Cosmopolitan about “how to give the best blowjobs that will make your man love you forever”.

That coupled with my first relationships being very sexually exploitative and abusive, fed into the image of “to have sex is to serve”.
It wasn’t about having fun or bonding, it was about giving the best possible experience. About being “the favorite”.

Sexuality and the female pelvis

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about how women are supposed to take back their sexuality and use it to feel empowered. But most of the time I feel pretty lost in all of that.

It is of course such a nice thought – to be able to be as sexual as you want, and supposedly not be judged for it. But so often it just feels like an excuse to sexualize women.

It could also be that I feel this way because of my own bad experiences. In the best of worlds we would all just be ourselves. As sexual or non-sexual as we want without feeling like we are under scrutiny.
Without having to justify to anyone, without the need for a “reason”.

Because of all of this, I personally feel so much power, thought, and emotion is stored in the symbol of the female pelvis.
It bears strength, vulnerability, beauty, pleasure, life, and years of violations and oppression.

It is a shape that often is on my mind, and frequents my sketches. It certainly deserves more thinking about, and I will continue to explore the subject through my art.