VIRTUAL: Forced Womanhood!

Rio Sofia first encountered sissification porn, where men are forced into womanhood as a form of punishment or humiliation, through fetish magazines. This rich underground visual language complicated her understanding of transgender representation and contradicted developing narratives in the mainstream that celebrated gender transition as an empowering form of self-determination.

In her work, Sofia inserts her body into the forced feminization narrative by utilizing self-portraiture and conventions in print pornography which, in many ways, parallels Catholic religious iconography. By using formal techniques of composition, lighting, and the gaze, there is a divine and unquestionable social hierarchy. Sofia’s research hopes to explore and speak back to the complex relationship that exists between gender, transformation, and power.

Zoom link available here.