The uniqueness of the exhibition “More Than One with One,” featuring works by Polish female photographers supported by the Femina Fenix Amazons Association and the Amazonki Young club established within it, lies in discovering true rather than superficial femininity.
“In our culture, the ‘power of the body’ lies in its beauty, but ‘power in the body’ is rare […]” writes Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of the famous feminist bible “Women Who Run with the Wolves.” We should admire the body not for its superficial appearance, she argues, but for its vitality, its ability to respond, to carry us wherever we want to go, and its resilience.
I do not know a woman who would say, “My legs are beautiful because they allow me to go wherever I want,” but I know many who say that they are either too fat or too thin. And if any woman considers her body beautiful, she values it only because it fits the prevailing template. And there is one such template for a million women. We find it on the cover of “Playboy.” That is the ideal.
Who has the courage to oppose it? The Amazons.
Our breasts have not belonged to us—women—for a long time. The commercial market rules them. They must be digitally enhanced, like on the package of the condoms they advertise. They must be changed, corrected, rejuvenated, enlarged or reduced. Adapted to society’s definition of perfection. Pamela Anderson allowed them to be cut open and filled with silicone. She then insured them. They make money for her, reproduced in billions of copies, creating an unattainable model—the canon prevailing in society.
The Amazons have won many battles. In addition to the fear of pain and illness, of mutilation, they had to face an equally dangerous enemy: society’s prevailing belief about the beauty of the female body.
If we want to help the Amazons, both those who are here today and those of the future, let us love our bodies. Let us break conventions and destroy stereotypes. Let us not measure their beauty in centimeters or sizes; it does not come from the covers of glossy magazines. Let us not allow it to be restricted to a single template. May our bodies be attractive to us because they allow us to experience the world of the senses. They respond to tender gestures by embracing a loved one. They defend us from attack by biting, kicking and striking. They allow us to come to someone’s aid. They overcome illnesses with us.
The Amazons—commonly regarded as mutilated or as beautiful despite their loss—have won the war against the world for their own free judgment of beauty. Their bodies are beautiful because they have regenerated. Their arms are beautiful because they carry children. Their bellies are beautiful because they tremble with laughter. Their breasts are beautiful because they breathe with the fullness of life.
I invite everyone to the opening of the exhibition “More Than One with One,” organized by the Bolesławiec Cultural Centre at Galeria Długa, on Friday at 6:00 p.m.
Grażyna Hanaf