Crystal Zapata – Don’t Be Afraid of Yourself II (2014)

I am in love with this image. Seriously, I know mid-career artists who aren’t as conceptually cohesive, direct and unequivocal.

And Zapata isn’t about holding the hands of anyone who misses the ostensible point:

I’ve never had such a hard time trying to make art. Lately, I’ve been
trying to figure out what it is that I actually care about. As it turns
out, I am a woman. I can go on for a while about all of the things that
anger me about our social construct, but all I will say is fuck the
media and fuck history for telling me that I have to be a pretty,
flawless, sexual being, when my own sexuality is taboo.

This image should not shock you. I see photos of sexualized women
hundreds of times per day, so why is THIS considered inappropriate?
Question your surroundings.

Awesome and profoundly relatable.