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Good morning!

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My name is Martha Mosse.

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I'm a feminist performance artist.

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My work is about control and oppression,

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but also about breaking
the boundaries of our prisons.

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In particular, the indefensible
prisons of our bodies.

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Looking back, I realize
I've always been a feminist.

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I just hadn't labeled it yet.

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My first realization of gender
inequality was when I was 18.

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I was travelling
through the desert in Dubai

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with my parents and brother.

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We were going to a literary festival.

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I fell into a conversation

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with a highly-respected
female war correspondent,

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who started telling me a story

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about several years earlier when visiting
a traditional household in Afghanistan.

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Upon arrival, she was told
to go into the kitchen

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and help the women cook dinner,

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while her two male
junior film crew members

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were invited to relax with the men
in the main room.

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After hours of cooking,
preparing a huge feast,

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the women pushed the platters
beneath the beaded curtain

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that separated
the kitchen from the living room,

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the women from the men.

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After the men had finished eating,

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they pushed the trays back
beneath the curtain,

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and it was only then that the women
were allowed to eat what remained.

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I cried when I heard that story.

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I cried, because I realized suddenly

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how pointlessly unfair and limiting
the world can be.

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I also cried because I was acutely aware
that this was now it:

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that once you have recognized
gender inequality

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and the need for feminism,

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you can't unsee it.

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I began identifying myself as a feminist

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in my second year at university
when writing my dissertation.

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The essay was an analysis of the labels
'slut', 'spinster', and 'perfect'.

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For it, I read many of the great classic
and contemporary feminist texts:

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The Second Sex, The Female Eunuch,

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The Beauty Myth, Living Dolls.

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(Laughter)

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It was through reading these books
and thinking these thoughts

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that I suddenly began to feel braver.

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I felt more able to voice my opinions,

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and I felt in good company.

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It was also through doing this research

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that I started to develop
my current performance art practice.

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I recognized the danger in certain labels,

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and I wanted to explore
and highlight this danger

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in relatively neutral environments.

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As most people are unaware
of what performance art actually is,

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it exists outside of a label.

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So, my work analyzes the danger 
of these three specific labels.

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And they are the reason
why I will always label myself a feminist.

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I'll start with 'perfect'.

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Perfection masquerades as a compliment.

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It poses as an achievable idea,
but it is a lie to aspire to.

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So much of both the historical
and contemporary economy

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has relied upon the ideal.

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The fashion and beauty industries
flaunt falsified examples

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of the perfect skin, eyes,
lips, hair, bum, nails, tan;

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none of which any woman has,
but all of which, apparently, we need.

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(Laughter)

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The health and fitness industry

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relies upon women and men
being dissatisfied with how they look.

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So they develop workouts
that claim to get you the perfect body.

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But what is a perfect body?

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I contend that perfection is subjective.

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It's different for everybody.

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So how can total physical
perfection be possible?

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It can't be, right?

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The danger with advertising
an impossible ideal as achievable

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is that it only encourages and makes
women and men feel like failures.

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But even if you are lucky enough
to have been born with the genes

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that can even begin to approach
the physical ideals of perfection,

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the next hurdle for you to overcome
is the threat of remaining unmarried.

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So, my next label is spinster.

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For a woman, as she ages,
it is thought that she is decaying.

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Her body clock is ticking,

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and as her looks fade,

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apparently, her purpose, her possibility
of finding happiness is lost.

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The man equivalent
of a spinster, a bachelor,

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is depicted as enjoying a party lifestyle
and high-rise appartments.

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He can perfect his now swarf
and silver-fox-looks

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with expensive beauty products
and charm women half his age.

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A spinster is pitied.

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She is condemned to sit alone
surrounded by cats,

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mourning the loss of her youth.

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(Laughter)

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No matter how happy or successful she is,
Hollywood superstar Jennifer Aniston

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is continually portrayed
by the world's media as sad or failed

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because she hasn't yet had a baby.

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The intention is that if a woman
hasn't married or have children,

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then she has failed at being a woman.

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To be 'left on the shelf',
as the phrase goes, is often assumed

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that a woman must have done
something wrong in her younger life,

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or that she must be wrong.

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There must be a reason for that.

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Perhaps, she was a slut.

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The slut is an overly promiscuous woman 


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who fails to fit into society's narrow
parameters of 'sexy', but not 'too sexy'.

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(Laughter)

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Judging by media representations,
women should dress elegantly,

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show some skin,
wear red lipstick, don't work.

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Mainstream pornography,
which is widespread,

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is continually bombarded
with sexual scenarios

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where the woman has sex

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even if she doesn't want to
or isn't ready.

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The soft and hardcore porn industries

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advertise sex as so immediate
and so unintimate,

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that younger generations of boys and girls

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are starting to think
that that is how it is done.

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Yet, despite these oversexualized
images of women in porn,

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in lux mags, in music videos,
in a national newspaper,

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when a woman follows
this example in real life,

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she's mocked, criticized,
verbally, or even physically, abused.

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Once again, she fails.


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And the failure is her fault.

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According to an Amnesty survey,

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one in three people
blame a woman for being raped.

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They ask if she was drunk,
if her skirt was too short,

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if she was too flirty,

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as if any of this means

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that she loses the right
to the control over her own body.

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SlutWalks, a kind of performance art,
are trying to reclaim the word,

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but it remains part of the backlash
against female sexual liberation

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and the control that it gave women.

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The word 'slut' segregates women from men.

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It segregates women from women.


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It dehumanizes and objectifies us all.

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The labels 'slut', 'spinster',
and 'perfect' are commonplace.

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They offend, limit, and intimidate women.

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They take away the power
and pass along the control.

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The blatant sexist messages
contained in each are so ingrained

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that most people, I hope,

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are unaware of the hurt, fear,
and isolation that they breed.

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They keep women caged.


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They keep the status quo.

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It's because of labels like these

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that I find it so vitally important
for women and men

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to identify themselves as feminists.

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Neither of my parents ever conformed
to traditional gender roles.

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They both brought my brother and I up.
They both worked.

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So, my brother and I grew up
in an unlabeled house.

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I currently own two power drills.

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(Laughter)

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I built my first piece
of flat-pack furniture when I was six.

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And I still use these skills
in my performance art practice today.

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My favorite room in the house
is the kitchen.

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When we allow labels to limit us,

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then men and women, boys and girls
fail to achieve their true potential.

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But sometimes, asserting an identity

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can encourage us to be who we wish,
act as we want to be.

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In my case, an artist. 


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A performance artist.

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Feminism is not a reductive label.

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Do not let a hostile media persuade you

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that we cannot be feminists
or that we should not be feminists.

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It's not a reductive label.

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It is an invitation, a celebration,
an opportunity.

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It has encouraged men and women
from across the world

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to be braver, louder, more independent.

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It has forced

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enormous financial, political,
human rights, and social change.

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Feminism is about fairness
and equality of opportunity for all.

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So aren't we all feminists?

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I'm Martha Mosse.

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I'm a feminist performance artist.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)