Trump got re-elected, so we went to life drawing
01/12/2024 Natalie Woods
Photographers Nina Claire, Uma Chaghaghi, Hayley Smith, Shari Annabell Marks, Anthony Ong, and Sinead Leigh.
01/12/2024 Natalie Woods
Photographers Nina Claire, Uma Chaghaghi, Hayley Smith, Shari Annabell Marks, Anthony Ong, and Sinead Leigh.
When Gabrielle Miller and Sophie Taylor scheduled HOTMESS In the Flesh at Mullumbimby’s Drill Hall Theatre for Friday 8 November they could not have known the pivotal events that would precede their show. Call it divine timing or a happy coincidence, but the goddesses were smiling upon the women (and handful of men) who excitedly filed into the theatre that night. It had been a confusing week–Trump had just been re-elected in the United States and the women in my circles were in shock having watched newly elected congressmen gloat and laugh that they owned women’s bodies now. The US may be miles away, but we would be naive to think that the systemic problems which put a convicted felon, racist and misogynist–and his running mates–back into office are not also simmering under the surface here in Australia.
Of course, the show must go on, and this show was a special one. Not only was it the first HOTMESS performance back in the Northern Rivers for six months, but it was a special Femme edition–an exploration and celebration of the feminine, wrapped up into a two hour performance art and life drawing experience.
If you haven’t been to a HOTMESS show yet, it’s a little bit surrealistic, a little bit raunch, and a whole lot of incredible costumes. With eyes transfixed on the stage, you do your best to transpose the scene before you onto the paper resting on your lap.
In the first act, we were introduced to the journey of a woman through life, from maiden to mother, and on to crone. As our muse, Gabrielle Miller, posed throughout each rite of passage, a man’s voice over the radio provided instructions on how to be a woman; “Be flirty but not slutty, be sexy but not vain, … work like you’re not a mother and mother like you don’t work …”. On and on he droned. As we finished our sketches of the (literally) cheeky and defiant crone, she turned to the radio, lifted a baseball bat high above her head and smashed the radio to bits. The crowd went wild.
Haven’t we all experienced the double standards that are imposed on women? The incessant advertising that insists we must stay slim and youthful, while our male counterparts become revered as silver foxes. The continual lack of regard (and respect) for women’s health. The relentless scrutiny that any female public figure endures while men can be actual convicted felons and still get elected to the highest office of a global superpower.
The feminine rage and power in the room was palpable. We will take your ideas of femininity and smash them to bits.
If we need a role model or muse for how to be and act in this terrifying time, when the likes of self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate are corrupting our young men and boys while tweeting “the men are back in charge”, then may we all find one in Gamillaraay artist; mother and grandmother, Debbie Taylor Worley who took to the stage in the second Act. As her daughter, Sophie Taylor, shared the story of their ancestors–the 500 Gamillaraay women warriors who stood in the mountains above an encroaching colonial army and beat their possum skin drums until the colonisers turned and fled in fear–Debbie sat on stage, a formidable force, beating her possum skin drum for a powerful six minutes. With goosebumps raised on our flesh, the message from Debbie was clear, we are the women that narrow-minded destructive men fear.
Had we been wearing bras, we would have burnt them.
HOTMESS In the Flesh is performing at this year’s Woodford Folk Festival. Follow them on Instagram @weare.hotmess to find out when you can catch them locally in the Northern Rivers in 2025.
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