Week 12 of #TWmemorymondays! On the same wavelength of addressing microaggression- today's memory is one of my own. This one is a significant one for me, because it's one of the most agressive microaggression I've experienced. It doesn't hit race, but it is sexist from my own gender.

Background to the story: I began piano lessons at the age of 3, and was quickly very serious about it. I owned classical piano and training, and I worked really hard to perfect my technique and expression. For my highschool years, I got into a piano studio under a very high esteemed piano teacher. I did competitions, all sorts of piano exams, recitals every weekend, theory camps...all the things. It was my LIFE!

So every year I did Certificate of Merit, where you played ten pieces in different time periods by memory in front of a panel of judges. You get scores by a lost of criterias and then it all gets added up to give you an overall score.

One of those later years, I got the highest among the piano studio...even higher than one of the male students that my teacher obviously favored. When I have her the report right after the exam, she responded by saying how pretty and cute I looked in my outfit...and that's probably why the judges scores me so high.

My mom soon pulled me out of that studio.

That memory is seared into my brain! Because it was horrifying to have all your efforts and skills undermined by a "compliment." That was one of the most aggressive microaggression I have ever gone through. So so so many things have been said under good intentions, or a compliment, or a joke that are just lined with a toxic layer of sexism, xenaphobia, and racism. That sugary layer is the glue that keeps systematic dehumanization together. Doesn't that make you mad??
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#TWmemorymondays: A painting inspired by a memory every Monday of 2018. Connecting abstract art to real life. Week 12/53. 'Cute' / 8x8 in / mixed media on paper