Stephanie Martz
The most tactile awareness and understanding of gender is linked to the body’s development. The French philosopher Michel Foucault has written about the construction of architectural spaces influencing our identity through the way our bodies are directed to move through a space. Just like the construction of a house, the changes that occur within our bodies create and influence our understanding of gender within ourselves and its application to others.
Intimate architecture
She is of the age when girls
lay their bodies sprawled
over each other’s bedspreads
amidst fluffy, lacy pillows.
In her friend’s bedroom she pulls
from side to side
a tiny gold giraffe charm she wears
on a chain.
It is within the house’s
innermost spaces that talk turns
to the unfolding body.
Whispered voices like critters scuttling
over the ground at night
unheard by parent or sibling.
Two years ago in fifth grade class
the girls were shown charts
and diagrams
of women’s reproductive organs,
pointer slapping against the taut white screen
as the teacher said “ovary”
and circled the appropriate area.
Ovary means nothing to either girl.
Only one has begun to bleed every month,
the other will begin the following year.
The girls do not talk about sexual organs,
but immediate changes.
Boys standing in front of class
pants revealing a slowly growing bulge.
Pulling up their shirts
and unzipping jeans they compare
the color and form
of the growth of peach fuzz
that creeps up towards the belly.
Stephanie Martz is an artist and writer who received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia California. Her poetry has been published in the online journal [com]motion magazine and her art reviews have been published in ArtLies and Glasstire. The image of the house as a metaphor for the human body is a central theme in her art and writing. She currently lives, works, teaches, reads, writes and makes art in Houston Texas.