“Socialized in the false assumption that we will find love in the place where femaleness is deemed unworthy and consistently devalued, we learn early to pretend that love matters more than anything, when in actuality we know that what matters most, even in the wake of feminist movement, is patriarchal approval. From birth on, most females live in fear that we will be abandoned, that if we step outside the approved circle, we will not be loved.”
tethered: a slave for longing, 2025 (acrylic on Belgian linen, 84’ x 60’)
“As females in a patriarchal culture, we were not slaves of love; most of us are slaves of longing—yearning for a master who will set us free and claim us because we cannot claim ourselves.”
-Communion: The Female Search For Love, bell hooks