Sex is everywhere. We see sexual images and scenarios in movies, music videos,

and commercials. Society has changed throughout history but humans and their

sexuality has pretty much stayed the same. It is something intimate, private, and

mysterious. Sex is often tied with religion and procreation, leading me to the topic of

marriage. Having sex before one is married is seen as taboo because God frowns

upon it in the Christian religion. Being a Christian myself, I find this issue interesting

because of the clashing views and grey area that most people seem to miss when

seeing the issue in black and white. I tried looking at the situation from a different

more personal perspective since I myself have engaged in sexual relationships

before marriage.

Some of my friends believe in saving their purity until marriage but yet at the

same time they fall in the grey area by partaking in other activities. This sort of

hypocrisy and subtle judgment towards others who do not wish to save their purity

until marriage inspired me to do this piece. I personally do not find anything wrong

with the fact since it is natural and we are truly just animals in a sense. I tried to

portray the hands frenzied, hungry, and grabbing as if they have lost all sense of

rationality and are only thinking with their primal instinct of lust and sexual desire.

The girl represents the feelings and emotions conveyed by those whom the

judgment, dirty looks, and rumors fall upon as well as all of the “grey” area that is

dismissed when discussing this taboo such as rape.

The history posters were really inspiring by their use of color and strong

messages. The message was clear and had to be understood by the general public

therefore it could not be too decorated in double meaning and complexity. I loved

the stark use of red, white, and black because it can convey such a strong message.

The color red is passionate and can be very violent and powerful when paired with

black and white since it can represent blood or a sign of attention such as in the

poster below. One thing I learned about the history posters is the actual style in

which they were drawn, that is something I tried to do in my own posters. They also

usually had a central figure or message. The women in the posters were not

sexualized which is something I wanted to explore further. There is a contrast

between the two women in the posters below one not being a “history poster” but

it’s from the same time period. This contrast was really interesting to me. These are

some of the things I drew inspiration from for my own poster.

The taboo I chose speaks to the culture around me because it can be

interpreted in so many different ways. I enjoy creating pieces that can relate to any

one girl or woman differently than the other. I believe that it speaks to issues

taking place in society today and are very much close to some of us.

I enjoyed doing this project because it allowed me to pair up two topics that I

never thought could go together. The sketched out style, the colors, and central

image of history posters really inspired me for this piece.