In the Name of Love

This work symbolically depicts views and feelings towards women’s virginity in a patriarchal social context. Through the representation of a mattress attached to a wall that is divided by a line resembling a vagina, Candrani illustrates the wound on a woman’s blood membrane when she first has sex. These wounds are generally interpreted as a sign of virginity, a commodity that is closely guarded. The act of sewing up a wound in a mattress that has split open after it has been scratched represents an attempt to hide the physical signs of the tear. This reflects the social norm for women to maintain an image of virginity, demonstrating the importance of maintaining physical purity. The use of transparent plastic in this story has deep significance. The plastic protects but remains transparent, indicating that efforts to hide wounds are not always successful. This reflects that women may try to hide, but these signs are sometimes seen or felt by society, creating a dynamic between hidden image and reality. The inscription “In the Name of Love” on the mattress, illuminated in dangerous red neon lights, refers to the justification often used for the sake of love. This includes how culture and norms control women’s bodies, encouraging views of women as subservient to social expectations of virginity. Overall, this work underscores virginity as a complex social construct, highlighting how society controls women and judges them based on norms. This illustrates the difficulty of women