Your Body My Choice

Hattie Alwen

For centuries physicians accounted for women’s illnesses and pain with the ‘floating womb’ theory. When seeking support from today’s medical professionals, women’s concerns have been dismissed by phrases like ‘it’s all in your head’, still leaving patients feeling unheard.
 
Your Body, My Choice exposes the legacy of medical misogyny and gaslighting that forms the framework of our modern healthcare system; one that masks the androcentric system as universal values. Stemming from personal and collected stories of women’s experiences this project highlights the hidden and individualised nature of pain ascribed to women as ‘natural’.
 
At its conception, photography was considered truth. Doctors and researchers exploited its power by categorizing, objectifying and sexualising the female body in an unreturnable gaze, with technological advancements continuing to perpetuate this power to diagnose. By harnessing photography’s ability to represent, these photographs push back on pain that is real, even if invisible.