Would You Stand in Times Square in Lingerie?

“The solution is not to tell women to cover up." So says Diana Oh, the artist behind the "My Lingerie Play" art installation. "The solution is not to tell women to keep chaste," she continues. "The solution is not to tell women to stop being sexual beings... The solution is to change the way we are talked about."

Oh's My Lingerie Play is one small part of that solution. It consists of 10 installation art pieces around New York City wherein women stand atop literal soapboxes in lingerie, accompanied by brown paper bags listing the various things to which women are subjected based on our gender. It's a powerful statement about women's sexuality, one that needs to be made.

In a short film about the project, Oh explains that she uses the term lingerie in the project intentionally. "People are threatened by the word 'lingerie' in a way that they aren't by the word 'underwear.'" And it's true that lingerie has much more sexual connotations than simply underwear. And yet, like most things involving female sexuality, a woman wearing lingerie is all too often either slut shamed or reduced to a commodity for the male gaze. Or both.

Yet, as Oh points out on the project's Facebook page, "I am more than just a sex object in my lingerie." She continues, "I've had my heart broken, broken hearts, have loved, hated, liked, and everything in between in my lingerie. I've been my most human and vulnerable, I've been my most confident and brave. I've been my most hurt. All in my lingerie."

In other words, lingerie is awesome and not something to be demeaned or demonized. Also, female sexuality is awesome and not something to be demeaned or demonized. And standing in Times Square in your lingerie is cooler than I ever could have imagined.

You can check out more photos and videos of Oh's installations on the project's website.

Image: My Lingerie Play/Facebook