What is the weight of your desire @ Zoo

“A woman is an object. A woman is a sexual object.” There are many pieces of performance trying to create a discourse around objectification of women, and their use as sexual objects, but none seem to tackle it quite so clearly as What is the weight of your desire. Slow and sensual, sharp and almost violent, it makes for an innovative and energetic discussion of objectification of women.

VerTeDance present the audience with a nameless, faceless shape of the ideal woman - in this case, one of the performers covered in a cloth from head to toe. Further down the line, the performers introduce the idea of cosmetic surgery and modification of the body to conform to the form of the ‘ideal woman.’

Admittedly, the piece draws no evident conclusions aside from the fact that women are objectified and some are willing to go so far as to change their external appearance through surgery in order to approximate this ideal non-existent figure as best they can. Feminism has told us that objectification is bad; women are not property, and they are human beings, not a trophy to be ogled at. The question is what do we do about it? How do we deal with objectification through the lens of lust? These are questions that arise from this show, yet are not explored.