Hannah Bates is fashioning her worn underwear into face masks and selling them online for the average price of an abortion in the United States, $950.
While it sounds like the perfect clickbait for a pandemic, the New York-based artist is using @Pantyrespirator as a way to shine a spotlight on women’s rights. With many abortion clinics in the USA shutting their doors in the face of COVID-19, women are being denied autonomy over their own bodies and missing out on essential healthcare.
“This project is a form of protest against the states who have shut down abortion clinics as they consider them non-essential under the directive to postpone ‘elective’ and ‘nonessential’ procedures in order to free up hospital beds and equipment,” Hannah said in an interview with Dazed.
“Selling the panty face masks at $950, roughly the price of an abortion, holds peoples’ reproductive rights to the same value as everyone’s right to healthcare during a crisis. I’m donating part of the proceeds to Planned Parenthood. I want this project to spread the word about this time-sensitive issue. Planned Parenthood also really needs PPE right now.”
“The project uses a capitalist model to demonstrate the value of peoples’ reproductive rights. Access to safe abortion, for anyone that wants one, is as important as protecting anyone and everyone’s health during a crisis. Taking my panties, and transforming them to a face mask is a literal representation of this. Whether it’s sex work is blurry, I think that idea lives in the minds of the audience, but the project seeks to leverage this concept to confront stereotypes about peoples’ value and to validate the value of all people.”
But why specifically used panties?
“The used panties take this from a simple association to the femininity, to the idea of sexuality. I want to confront these shame-filled messages with sex-positivity. There’s a surge in supply and demand for cybersex during this crisis, as we are isolated in our apartments and lacking touch. People are getting creative with their outlets for sex, and I believe the sex-positivity around communication and exploration that comes from that is beautiful. I believe spreading sex-positivity confronts stereotypes that lead to anti-abortion laws.”
Hannah says the response has been mixed since she began posting her second-hand panty masks, with women being more supportive than men.
“I’m asking people to critically examine this scenario that I’ve set up. It involves economics, greed, sex, politics, and it’s personal. I’m interested in who will buy them, and for what reason, and I’m interested in the feedback I receive, good and bad.”