MY        
  LUXURY

     Poem by Deborah Cristina de Mello

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Images by Sylvana Burns

Dissected
“The hand is not only the hand of a man- it is the hand of society laid on the female subject as a historical and present oppressor. The hand is cold and clinical, but lascivious and carinal nonetheless. There is an interplay between perversity and the scientific “will to knowledge”,
a sort of Heimlich effect in medical examinations where the examiner squeezes a bit too hard than he should. The hand is the physical manifestation of the gaze "touching” the body, turning it into an object. The hand superimposes its presence. The hand is the culmination of the exertion of power through the eye, camera, gaze and power.”

This body doesn’t belong to my parents
that pay my bills

This body doesn’t belong to my ex-boyfriends
who always had opinions about it

This body doesn’t belong to the church
that wants to decide what I can or cannot do

This body doesn’t belong to the government
that makes laws about it

This body doesn’t belong to men on the streets
that rape me with their eyes  

This body doesn’t belong to my friends
that call me fat

This body doesn’t belong to fashion
that is always telling me how I should look

I am no longer fitting my body to clothes
that don’t fit me

I’m taking ownership of this body

This body belongs to me

This body is mine


And this is my new luxury