Cliteracy | Sophia Wallace | TEDxSalford

Translator: Haifaa Saad Reviewer: Sophia Kuchina Hello Manchester. I'm so happy to be here. (Responses) (Applause) My name is Sophia Wallace. I'm an artist. And today I am here to share with you a project that I hope will empower you personally and, by extension, those you love, especially if they have a clitoris. (Applause) (Laughter) For this to work, I have to talk about independent female desire. I have to talk about a universal taboo: female genitalia. This is not easy. It contaminates the speaker. I want to thank TEDxSalford for inviting me here and hosting this conversation. All bodies have the right to experience the pleasure of which they are capable.

This is a central pillar of literacy. In making this work, I had to say that the clitoris, first of all, as an organ, has a right to exist, and that this right is not just about not being cut off. Unfortunately, to date, more than 140 million women have had their external clitoris amputated. This doesn't appear in the news very often and it doesn't come up in foreign policy discussions. So, number one, the clitoris has the right to exist, free of damage, like any other organ. But secondly, I maintain with literacy that the clitoris has the right to pleasure, and this is part of its primary right to be.

How is it possible that we reached the Moon and walked for 29 years before discovering the anatomy of the clitoris? (Laughter) In fact, we cloned sheep, identified the Higgs boson particle, and discovered the clitoris just 29 years ago. Unfortunately, this discovery has not been adopted, so most people do not know the actual anatomy of the clitoris. The clitoris is not a button. It's an iceberg. Like many in the room hearing this for the first time, I was surprised to discover that I didn't know the actual anatomy of half the population, that I didn't know my own anatomy. In fact, the clitoris is not a button, it is like an iceberg.

Most of the organ is internal. This slide is an anatomical example of the penis and clitoris side by side. Now, we have all been taught that male and female bodies are opposites: the male body protrudes, the female body is solely internal. Well, in fact, there are many similarities between the penis and the clitoris. So, if you see, both the glans and... the glans of the penis and the glans of the clitoris... both organs have a glans. There are 3000 nerves in the glans penis. There are 8000 nerves in the glans of the clitoris. Both organs have a corpus cavernosum.

Both organs have pillars, like two legs or wings. Both organs have bulbs of erectile tissue. Both organs become erect. The penis is mostly outside the body and the clitoris is mostly inside the body. That's the biggest difference. In fact, they are very similar. In reality, fetuses have the same tissue, and in boys it develops like a penis, in girls it develops like a clitoris. Some people have small penises, others have very large clitorises. If one has a clitoris and takes testosterone, their clitoris can expand. What I'm saying is that these organs are quite similar. And, while we are different, while we are unique as men and women, our differences are not a sign of opposition.

In fact, we are related to each other, we are connected. And that is an exciting fact. With Cliteracy I started with language. Language has been a place where much of the division between men and women and the subjugation of women has taken root in language itself. 'Vagina': the most misused word in the English language. This is one of the laws of literacy. It's intentionally hyperbolic. But unfortunately, it's more true than I wish it were. 'Vagina' is a Latin word. It means 'sword bearer'. (Laughter) The vagina, medically, technically, only includes the opening. This term is almost universally used in doctors' offices.

It is also used in feminism to defend something. But it is a term that ignores the clitoris, which is the female sexual organ. And secondly, it reduces the female body to being a receptacle, a sword holder. If you want to use a term that refers to all female genitalia, both the reproductive and sexual parts, the word is 'vulva'. This is a word that almost no one uses, but it is the word if you want to talk about female genitalia: vulva. If you want to talk about pleasure, "clitoris" is the term. The clitoris is both internal and external.

So when the clitoris is activated, internal stimulation feels great. If the clitoris is not engaged, it may not feel good or may be painful. It's about what's happening with the clitoris. If it were the vagina, there would be so many nerves that childbirth would be impossible. There are very few nerves in the vagina. All the nerves inside come from the internal clitoris, which is stimulated from both the external and internal parts. With Cliteracy I felt that: Yes, language has been this way of restricting and confining the female body, but if language can do these things, it can also liberate, it can also be expansive.

It is also an opportunity to unite. That's why I sought to use language as a way to change the discourse and create a new space and more alignment. With Cliteracy, I first started with the term, then a definition of the term, and then an eye chart. The aesthetics of this project were also extremely important and intentional. I avoided any type of pink and purple; I didn't use flowers; I didn't use any fabric or thread, nothing soft and fluffy. I also didn't make any small work that you could hold in your hand or eat off similar plates.

I also intentionally avoided any type of sexual imagery, any type of graphic, close-up or literal representation. I believe that everywhere we see the female body exposed and yet we do not know the real female sexual organ, the clitoris. So showing it off isn't the point, right? Understanding it is the point. Literacy and knowledge of it is the point. (Laughs) The hole is not the whole. With Cliteracy I had a lot of fun with the word games. There was a lot of material to work with and a lot to talk about. I'm also making the radical claim with Cliteracy that we can't be truly free if our bodies are under attack.

We can't really fully enjoy our democracy when half the population can't talk about their own bodies, is censored when they say the words because they are taboo, or regularly has sex without orgasms. And we don't talk about this. I am making the radical claim that freedom in society can also be measured by the distribution of orgasms. This could be an indicator we use when we look at education, access to healthcare, and the economy. We could also say: How are orgasms distributed? That tells us something about a society. There is nothing missing. Really. Freud invented the phallus versus lack paradigm.

He said that men have a phallus, they have a penis, they have agency; Women have a lack, they have a vagina, they have a void. In fact, Freud was wrong, the vagina is not the female sexual organ, it is the clitoris. There is no lack, none of us is lacking, none of us is lacking, we are all complete. And none of us need to be represented solely in terms of a void. In many ways, we have all had a psychological clitoridectomy because the clitoris is never shown. In sex education, it is taught that children are both sexual and reproductive, that they have erections, that they have wet dreams, that they ejaculate and then the semen fertilizes the egg.

We are taught that girls have reproductive organs, they menstruate, and menstruation is painful. Girls should not get pregnant if they do not intend to. Girls should not get sexually transmitted diseases. We never learn about the clitoris. We never learn that girls have desire, that this is natural, that girls have sexual dreams, that girls have fantasies. So as a culture, I would say we all have clitoridectomies. 'Clit, say my name, say my name.' I really enjoyed using puns and placing the clitoris in popular culture and song lyrics. A lot of popular culture, music: female genitalia is kind of riffed on, but almost always in a negative way.

If you want to humiliate a man, call it appropriately female genitalia, right? But this is also an opportunity, you can just touch the clitoris and suddenly the whole song changes; is very powerful. So this is a Destiny's Child song, there are many more on Laws of Cliteracy like 'There's No Half a Step to the Clitoris', 'Sleeping on the Clitoris?' That shitty shit, it is. Here is an example of the 100 Laws of Literacy below. So this work measures 13 feet long by 10 feet high. It dwarfs anyone's body. When I first showed this work, I had no idea what the response would be.

Of course, I hoped it was positive, but I didn't know. And I have to say I was overwhelmed by the way the audience responded. They really wanted to have this conversation. They would stay with the work for 15 minutes. I would come back, they would still be there, they would have friends with them. And I felt that this work was necessary. They invited me to talk a lot about it and also contacted me privately. People shared secrets with me, people told me for the first time that they weren't ashamed of their bodies, or that they went home with this knowledge and were having a great time with their girlfriend, and they wanted to thank me for that.

So this was extremely rewarding. I think what made me feel like I was on to something was having such a diverse group of people support this project: men and women, young and old, religious and secular, queer and straight. Many people came together to support this project. And people from as far away as New Zealand, Egypt and Brazil contacted me and said, 'How can we help you with this project? Can you translate this project into Arabic or Portuguese? We need this here in our country. I wanted Cliteracy to reach everywhere, but I didn't know how to do it yet and I'm still figuring it out.

But I know it's necessary. And I know it can't just stay within the walls of the art world. I don't consider myself a street artist, but I started working on the street for the same reason I think many artists do: I wanted to communicate more widely. This is an example of a documentary in which only I place some pieces. These are prints I made on a newspaper print, then covered them with wheat paste just like old posters were put up. I'm just doing this in Brooklyn. Some people like to do street art at night, I do it during the day because I feel like it's a little safer, the anonymity of the crowd in New York.

So far, so good. And one of the interesting things about doing street art is that people will comment on your work. Sometimes they cross it out or destroy it, but other times they put their art on top of it. And in this case that happened. Again, like when I showed the work in the gallery, there was a huge response on the street, people were photographing it, posting it on Twitter and Instagram. And I felt like I was talking about something that needed to be talked about, that the project was necessary and people were grateful to find it and continue to push it further.

Doing street work encouraged me to take on even crazier ideas that I never thought I'd find myself doing. And in fact, I, along with an artist named Clit Eastwood, or Ken Thomas, organized the world's first clit rodeo last summer. We create a manageable golden clitoris. (Laughs) And we celebrated the first clitoris rodeo. And you know, there were two rules at the rodeo. Basically one: respect the clitoris. Respect it. Two: have fun. Those were the rules. We had so many riders wanting to participate, more than we could accommodate at our event. But the riders were judged according to three categories: skill, style and generosity.

And I have to say that they were very good runners. I was worried that it might be a little boring because, as you saw in the previous slide, it was just a spring. But people read erotica to the clitoris, someone did a striptease to the clitoris, someone surfed the clitoris, someone offered them a cigarette and then, like... There was a couple in which the woman was nine months pregnant; She was riding and her husband was in the background as her backup dancer, dancing... So, it was much better than she expected. I was excited because the clitoris was the star of the show.

Finally! I always wanted Cliteracy to be in the public space, for it to be on a large scale, for it to be seen over time, for it to not have to be hidden or a secret. And I had the opportunity last fall. Together with Centro and Santa Fe we put up a 35-foot Cliteracy sign, or 11-meter sign. The text says: "Democracy without literacy: phallus." And I was excited to do this, especially because this road is traveled by a wide range of people, from long-haul truck drivers to art collectors and everyone in between. The billboard company was a little less enthusiastic about the amount of feedback they received on the billboard, but I thought it was great.

A lot of people were like, 'What are you selling? I don't understand.' In fact, I got a call I'll never forget from a mom, who said, 'I have to drive this route with my son every day and I can't.I know what to tell him.' But he was excited because she was going to talk to him about literacy and this is something he needs to know. However, literacy needs more than text and I always knew he wanted to explore form as well. None of us know this way, right? He didn't know this way. So I set out to make the world's first anatomically correct sculpture of the clitoris.

And this was something that was actually quite difficult to do because there are so few accurate representations of the anatomy. And when you find these few drawings or scans, they contradict each other, they don't make sense. So, it wasn't actually that easy to do, but I set out to make this form. With the shape I not only wanted to explore the anatomy and make it precise, but I also wanted to show the gesture of the beauty of this organ and the grace of it. Here is the first sculpture I know of of the anatomically correct clitoris.

It is six feet tall and five feet wide. And I wanted to create an iconic form of this invisible organ that half of us have, we were all born from the body of someone who has a clitoris. Everyone in this room was born from the body of someone who has a clitoris. So we've all had the clitoris touched. This is universal and we don't know it yet. So I wanted to create an iconic shape that was memorable, that would put this in our consciousness. And I hope that finally this form will be treated with honor and respect and not as obscene.

I think it's a beautiful shape and I didn't know it, but once I saw it, I started to feel familiar this way. And I began to see it in the natural world, in plants. I also saw it in engravings, in architectural sites. I saw it in oriental tapestry weaves. I started seeing him around. And that was very exciting. And the form is interesting not strictly as sculpture, but in patterns. There is something very exciting about analyzing the power of the small, the power of multiplicity. Instead of creating just this singular top object, how about we put all these beautiful little shapes that together form an army of baby clitorises?

The one on the right, (Laughter) I call it 'Fleur-de-clits', and the one on the left was later used in the intervention at the Whitney Museum. So here's a sort of subversive clitoral army coming together to create the 'Clitoral Flower', which is this beautiful pattern. But unfortunately, if some people knew what it was, they wouldn't allow it. And that is the problem. Here is an example of more clitoris shapes and patterns I created. This is a clitoris damask pattern with polished clitoris shapes on wood. To the left is a new sculpture. This is the first sketch of an invisible clitoris sculpture.

It's the same digital shape I used to make the golden sculpture I just showed you. But this exists in negative space. So I used the laser to cut the shape out of clear plexiglass. And so this invisible sculpture addresses the fact that this is omnipresent and yet it is denied, it is invisible, it is not allowed to be talked about. I also continued with this idea of ​​denial and using the laser to burn with laser cut work on paper. And I developed a completely new technology. You may not have heard of it, but it's very cutting edge.

I'll try to explain it. It's called 'clitglass' and the way it works: anyone can use it; Anyone who wants neutral vision can use a clitoris. Then you put on the clitoris and look through the perspective of the clitoris. And the clitoris refracts any kind of phallocentrism that comes back to you. And so you get neutral vision, or what I like to call "normal" vision. (Laughs) Now you can wear clitglass at the Whitney Museum, or you can wear it at work, in front of the TV, even at a family gathering. (Laughs) This is an example of how to analyze this cutting-edge technology.

So those shapes that I showed before, I also played in my intervention at the Whitney Museum, called 'put a clitoris on it', or 'clitoris dazzles the Whitney'. Basically, I handed out these unknown clitoral shapes and said, 'Put the clitoris where you think it should go: put it as a subject in art history, put it in designs, put it on the American flag.' The entire country has an illiteracy problem. Help the United States. It just takes the clitoris where it needs to go.' As you can see on the bottom left, it's a Clitchtenstein. Bottom right, Clitsper Johns.

This is the family at the Whitney Museum during the intervention, and the boy on the left, who appears to be about 11, at one point asks his mother: They had been wearing the clitoral lenses for about 15 minutes, having a great time . . He was like, 'Mom, what's a clitoris?' (Laughs) And she said, 'Oh, it's a really sensitive part of a woman's body.' And he said, 'Okay, great.' And I was excited about one thing: he felt comfortable asking the question; two: his mother supported him and answered the question. And it was totally normal: nothing obscene, nothing secret, no one had to be dragged out of the room, no one had to be embarrassed.

And that's what I hope Cliteracy can continue to do. The response to Cliteracy has been overwhelmingly positive. Many people have supported the project and wanted to help with it. And there have been some institutions that have bravely begun to demonstrate it. But there is much more to do. My dream is to radically change the way we think about the body so that everyone's body is respected. I want to do this by creating permanent, large-scale public sculptures that will exist for thousands of years. I want to work with metals and stones so that these shapes don't disappear in future generations and we don't have to have this conversation over and over again.

Democracy without literacy is a phallus. I want literacy to be taught in schools so that no child has an unnamed body part. The clitoris should have a starring role in any bedroom he finds himself in. And he should not be censured in Parliament. Finally, I want to ask you to look at the clitoris. See it everywhere. Don't stop watching it. And if you need help, you can lend me this pair of glasses. And don't just watch it. Say it. Say his name. (Applause) (Greetings) Thank you. (Applause)