LS EX #6 “I Make Myself Smaller” aka some conversations about gendered space

This blog post is part of my early research for the Gendered Space project. But I just finished those interviews and wanted to share some of the recurring themes and personal reflections that came up in the beginning of the semester but also now. The project itself is still evolving but these conversations already gave me a lot to think about, and they’re definitely shaping how I move forward visually and conceptually.

What stood out most were not dramatic incidents, but small, repeated behaviors and things that we often don’t even notice ourselves: stepping aside, waiting our turn, not interrupting, sitting small.

Internalized Behavior

Many people (people perceived as female) I spoke to described how their relationship to space (especially inpublic space) has been shaped since childhood. Expectations like “be polite,” “don’t talk back,” or “be nice” are still a thing in adulthood.

“I think it’s in us from the beginning. As girls, we’re told not to talk back, to be respectful. That’s just the default.”

This idea came up a lot: how deeply certain behaviors get embedded. One person even said:

“Even if I woke up as a man tomorrow, I think I’d still let people speak over me. That’s just how I’ve learned to exist.”

It made me think about the blurry line between personality and conditioning and how hard it is to unlearn something that feels like second nature.

Where It Shows Up

The situations people described were strikingly similar. Most of them weren’t “big moments”  just the daily, automatic negotiations we make to keep the peace, avoid conflict, or not take up “too much” space.

Some recurring examples:

• Sitting tight while the man next to you spreads his legs across half the bench.
• Feeling the need to step aside on the sidewalk — even when you technically have the right of way.
• Being interrupted or talked over, especially in mixed-gender groups.
• Stopping mid-sentence so someone else can take over.

“It’s not even aggressive most of the time,” one participant told me. “It’s just assumed. Like, of course I’ll be the one who moves.”

Why This Matters for the Poster Series

These kinds of insights are exactly what I want to translate into the Gendered Space poster series. As I said in previous posts, the project is not about visualizing big protests or loud rebellion it’s about quiet defiance, everyday reversals.

So I’m working with scenes where women take up space deliberately:
spreading out, staying still, not flinching, not moving aside.

Through limited settings and gestures, I’m trying to make this internalized choreography and reinforced genderroles visible and gently disrupt them.