My piece is an outfit I created to describe my experience of gender dysphoria. The work consists of a pink turtleneck and beige khaki pants, which are outfitted with dome shaped magnets to restrict movement. The magnets are sewn in along the length of where the arms meet the body and at the upper thighs and crotch. While the magnets do not completely restrict movement, they alter the movements of the wearer to require more attention and effort. They make actions like reaching for a glass of water or spreading the legs more labored, more obvious, and more awkward. Every movement the wearer makes is accompanied by the clinking of magnets, making everyone around aware of the wearers movements at all times. In this way, the viewer is made to confront the wearers experience of being constantly perceived. What is usually a private understanding for the dysphoric individual becomes a shared experience for everyone present. Everyone in the room is a witness to the awkward and forced labor of every movement, and they have no choice but to be quietly aware of it as the conversation carries on. To be dysphoric in a group of people is to feel their perceptions in your body. To wear this outfit is to make everyone else feel those perceptions too, or at least to make them aware of the wearers constant experience.
