As a loud, queer, Jewish, femme presenting person, I have been on the receiving end of many derogatory slurs and comments and wanted to use this blatant act of disrespect to my advantage by re-claiming the absurd hilarity behind the statements.

In July 2020, I found myself very nearly living without a home. After weeks of daily house viewings, no Dutch estate agent wanted me anywhere near their property. About five days before my move-out date, I asked my friend why no one wanted to rent to me; she responded, “we look like dog-fucking anarchists”. I don’t know why I found such poetry in that sentence, but it just made absolute and perfect sense, which prompted the start of this project. To begin, I embroidered the words “dog-fucking anarchist bitch”, using Matrix II font by Zuzana Licko, on a tight black cardigan that I planned to wear as an off-the-shoulder shirt. I did not like how the embroidery turned out, nor did I like the skin-tight sexualized effect that the sweater had on my body. I decided that the item of clothing needed to be neutral, baggy, and desexualized. Everything seemed to align, and I found a second-hand oversized construction jumpsuit. Rather than embroidery, I hand-cut some stencils and printed the words onto the jumpsuit in warm tones of yellow, red, and orange.

Once completing the piece, I felt that there was more that was needed to be done. There is a trend going on right now where womxn across the globe are barking and growling at their cat-callers. Having barked at many a cat-caller, for safety reasons only in the Netherlands, and loved the confused and scared reaction from men I decided to show a performance of me practicing my barking skills while publicizing this piece by wearing it throughout the short video, to be ready for my next inevitable unwanted interaction.

DOG-FUCKING ANARCHIST BITCH