Pieces of Herself

The work of electronic literature, Pieces of Herself, is an interactive piece that delves into the complex idea of womanhood. The creator, Juliet Davis, focuses her piece on the subject of gender identity and the role of women in places such as the home, work, and the community. The environments that you encounter are all in black and white. As you move through the house and the outside area, you come across multiple colored objects that you can drag onto the woman’s plain body, that make her more colorful. As you drag these objects, the woman’s voice also tells different stories that involve what object you’re placing onto her body.

For example, in the shower you are able to drag strands of hair onto the woman, and she proceeds to talk about how her hair is getting grayer as it grows, so from time to time she decides to color it. The place of women in society as well as in their own home is explored in this piece through objects, sounds, and commentary in a very interesting and attention grabbing way.

In Pieces of Herself, as a man, I felt like I learned something. I got to see an in depth look at what makes up a woman, and how pieces of herself are taken away from every scenario she is in. Males do it too but in a different way, guys keep things to their self and don’t really let out information. Whereas in the piece that we view it shows a woman basically wearing it on her sleeve. This piece is very interactive, as you can create the woman by bringing pieces to her body. In a way this piece has you look at your life and what you have been through, by where you choose to put certain pieces. This is interaction that not many digital pieces have, which is what makes it so unique. In every scenario that mostly everyone has been in, the shower, the bedroom, and so on, you create the woman by the pieces you choose. I really enjoyed the creativity side that this piece gives you. It is totally up to you to design this woman, and create her in your own way, this again brings in the personal side, but also the person’s own creativity.

From a female’s perspective, this piece really highlights the stereotypes that women are boxed into every day. When you reach the church scene in this story, the woman talks about having a baby. This has been a stereotype for a long time, that women are expected to have children whether they want to or not. The shower scene where the woman talks about coloring her hair that was mentioned earlier, offers another example of how women feel like they must look a certain way. The references to covering up gray hair and getting botox show the viewers what it is like to be an aging woman in society, while the kitchen scene brings up the issue of women still being viewed primarily as homemakers. This piece also shows the importance of feminism and that even though society has come very far in regards to equality for men and women, women are still held to unfair standards.