Light My Fire Baby

For this piece, instead of reworking classic or contemporary art, I wanted to delve into the complex relationship between feminism and pornography. The images in this piece are reworkings sourced from the vintage porn magazine Mayfair. By engaging with this material, I confront and subvert the objectification of women’s bodies that has been prevalent in both the pornographic and mainstream media. Through appropriation, I aim to transform what has historically been used to commodify and exploit women into a space for feminist reflection and resistance.The image features a man’s hand, traditionally a symbol of control, poised to “light” the fire on a woman’s body. This act, once synonymous with the male gaze and dominance, is reimagined here to challenge that power dynamic. The hand no longer simply represents patriarchal control, but becomes a tool for reasserting a woman’s autonomy, inviting the viewer to reconsider who holds power in the relationship between the gaze and the body. The phrase “Light My Fire Baby” plays a key role in this subversion. While it can evoke the language of seduction, it also functions as a feminist reclamation of the imagery and language that has historically been used to silence and diminish women’s desires. In this piece, it’s not the woman who is passive, but the man, whose actions are framed within a broader dialogue of control, objectification, and empowerment. Through the recontextualization of this imagery, I seek to spark a conversation about how women’s sexuality has been consumed and defined by the male gaze. The act of reclaiming this visual language—by subverting traditional power dynamics—speaks to a feminist agenda of liberation: the notion that women’s bodies, desires, and expressions of power belong to them, not to anyone else. This work challenges the traditional narrative that women’s bodies are objects for male pleasure. Instead, it creates space for women to define their own sexual and personal autonomy. It’s about lighting the fire from within and rejecting the external forces that have historically sought to control it.