By Terrah Baker
Jane Kang looks like your average girl, despite her shaved head. She talks like a girl. She even dresses like a girl. But what does that mean, really?
More than likely the description just offered created a preconceived notion of what Kang looks, talks and dresses like, when really no description was given.
What does it mean to look, talk and dress like a girl?
Kang started asking herself this very question when she made the decision to shave off the burden of long, blue hair she once wore with pride.
“It was nice — the attention I got — and how pretty I felt having long, blue hair, but after awhile the reality of the upkeep and brushing it every day and taking care of it got to me. I was sick of it,” she said.
On Christmas morning she decided to shave her head while a neighbor filmed.
To her, hair had become no longer a symbol of feminine beauty but a burden to rid herself of.
However, when she realized how many women still hold extreme fear toward losing their own hair, she realized she had an opportunity.
Through “XXYXX: A Conceptual Art Exhibit,” she is bringing together 12 local artists, along with curator Kayla Renee Moore, to help the community explore gender identity, the roles that are a part of our society, and how with all that stripped away, males and females are not very different from each other.
“When I shaved my head people were asking me ‘were you afraid.’ And I wasn’t sure why I would be afraid — I have tits and a vagina. No one else needs to know I have tits and a vagina for me to know I’m a girl,” Kang explained.
Naturally, when people start to critically think about gender roles, they must also begin a conversation about sexuality, and what is normal or not normal, she said.
“What is acceptable, what’s not acceptable? Why is that acceptable to you, why is that not acceptable to you? I want that conversation to be had in a serious way and an engaging and communal way,” Kang said.
This is Kang’s first show, so she wanted to make it big — in both topic and festivities. The exhibit at JR’s Lightbulb Club in Fayetteville on May 2 will house various mediums including video, comics, photography, painting, collage and anything the artists bring to the table.
There will be a cash-only sushi bar by Meiji Japanese Cuisine and live music by the Thunderlizards in drag, and Perpetual Werewolf doing a Joy Division/New Order cover set.
There is a fee of $3 or more to get you in the door plus a goodie bag of buttons, matchbooks and little surprises.
