Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Steffey.
Hi Monica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Wet Hairy Women started as a project in 2020 when I broke my hand dancing and couldn’t shave my legs for the first time, revealing major bodily insecurity.
Inspired by Marina Abramovic (to quote her: “expose what you are most ashamed of”), I started to heal my relationship to my body and womanhood by creating art about and with my body hair. Growing up in a conservative household, this was my way of beginning to question the traditional roles I had been taught to uphold within gender identity.
I have never seen a bathing suit ad with a woman who had hair on her bikini line, legs, or under her armpits. When these truths of the human body are hidden from us, we develop a repulsion for women and hair that strips away the power of choice and the empowerment that can come from a natural body.
The crazy thing is that because we grow up without any accurate images of what a natural woman’s body looks like, much of the artmaking I was doing at the beginning of this project was about confronting my own fears about seeing my body: Documenting what and how my body was capable of growing.
Ultimately, I saw what my body looked like for the first time when I was 24 years old.
While the experience was grueling, and on many mornings I woke up disliking what was growing on my body, it was also one of the most empowering experiences I have ever had. Confidence, choice, and love started to replace the shame and embarrassment that haunted me for so long.
I set out with the goal of bodily acceptance, and in turn stumbled upon a lifetime of creative inspiration and the discovery of fluidity in relationship to womanhood.
When 2021 rolled around, I expanded Wet Hairy Women into a movement and performance collective dedicated to celebrating, researching, and crafting loving relationships with our bodies; while actively highlighting the raw truths of womanhood through evocative performance art.
One year later, I am diving into rehearsals with the talented dance artist, Ragin Smith, for our upcoming production this summer to premiere in New York City: Untamed.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nobody ever really knows what they are doing. Wet Hairy Women has come as far as it has because I continue to move with the motto of “failing forward”. Learning with each step I take.
The greatest challenge has been the challenge of self-acceptance; which is ironic because that is how this all began.
I remember last summer, I gave myself the challenge of not shaving my legs. The scariest thing was seeing family and old friends. I was petrified of what they might think, or how they might judge my body. However, the deeper I dove into my practice and the community, the freer I became.
This practice of acceptance through creation was building up my ability to navigate the world without the judgment of others influencing my every move and decision with my body. I was unlocking and opening my bodily autonomy within the creation of my art.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Wet Hairy Women is a movement and performance company dedicated to celebrating, researching, and crafting loving relationships with our bodies.
We do this through art, movement, ritual, community, and advocacy. We believe that we can expand feminism and liberate all bodies by fighting shame around body hair and confronting how it looks, feels, and is perceived by the self and others. As an organization, our goal is to create performance art that serves as a gateway to pushing boundaries and preconceived notions of our relationships to the body and womanhood.
This past November, we launched our first annual campaign, No Shave Wovember; a necessary social movement inviting women and allies to grow out their body hair for the month, and join together to celebrate, research, and craft loving relationships with our bodies through the junction of art and advocacy.
During our first month, we had over 54 people commit to the challenge while raising funds for Wet Hairy Women’s performance project, UNTAMED. No Shave Wovember is a one-month marathon of community engagement, art, and conversation, dedicated to women’s bodily autonomy and liberation.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Primarily a dance artist, most of my work is with movement and my body. When Covid hit and most of the freelance dance industry went under, a lot of artists left the field.
With fewer peers around me, I found myself in natural collaborations with artists in other fields I would have never imagined myself working in. These extensions opened my eyes to the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration.
Bringing together various art forms such as music, drawing, sculpting, painting, singing, etc., allows for weaving of creativity that can lead to profound discoveries.
We are stronger together. Community matters.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.wethairywomen.org
- Instagram: @wethairywomen and @wethairymonica
Image Credits
Ragin Smith, Khorii Tinson, Zachary Schaffer, Perry Bindelglass, and Joelle Santiago
