New Street Art Series Confronts Insulting, Sexist Labels for Women

Relatively new Philly street artist Alex Sayer has just put up a new series of stickers and wheatpastes, titled the ‘Lipstick Series’, which addresses the many countless insulting and sexists labels there are for women.

As the artist explained to me in an email: “I was thinking about how many different insulting labels there are for women. I wasn’t surprised at how many of them reflected a woman’s sexuality or ‘girly-ness’. We are labeled for the way we dress, the way we wear our make up, if we wear make up, our choices about our own sex life, and our health care.”

Alex’s previous sticker and wheatpaste series came soon after the election of Donald Trump and dealt with the rejecting of fear and divisiveness. Describing her new series to me as a rejection of the patriarchy, Alex went on to explain her own evolving history with feminism: “For me personally, feminism wasn’t something I was raised on. It was only in the last few years that I really started to educate myself and realize that there were so many things wrong with my previous thinking. That’s why I feel such a desire to make art about this now.”

Right now you can find Alex’s new ‘Lipstick Series’ along South 4th street’s Fabric Row and at the intersection of 5th and Bainbridge streets in Queen Village!