Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson

I've entitled this sketch: "Secret Code"

Materials used: cardboard, pencil, Sharpies, safety pins

Basic Idea: I used an Internet search to get some basic outlines for female silhouettes, as the cover of "Written On the Body" shows a photo of a woman's back. I sketched out a pencil drawing freehand off of an image I found and then traced it out with Sharpie markers. I used a safety pin and a basic online Braille translator to write the words at the top of the sketch that read "secret code".

I've based my idea on the passage found in Winterson's book, as I've excerpted below; this is where the title of Winterson's work is derived from and, what I think, says the most about gender, identity, and knowing someone intimately truly means. Regardless of sex or the physical body, Winterson conveys the idea that love is love, and soul connects to soul. It's a beautiful statement that I wanted to try and capture and translate into a creative medium. In this thought gender is a non sequitur, which again makes me think of Butler's idea that gender is performance or a role learned and acted for the audience of those around us in society...it has very little to do with knowing someone intimately or love.

"Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime of gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book" (89).

Winterson, Jeanette. Written on the Body. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.