‘If you’re a boy, you might be tempted’: the woman who makes art out of male plaintiffs | Art and design

it started with a tweet. Nicole Tersigni ran through Twitter when she stumbled upon a man who recounted one of her friend’s jokes – something she’s experienced several times herself – and decided to make a joke of her. ‘I came across Google Images and searched for’ woman surrounded by men ‘. Because this is how it feels when you are online. That image appeared – the one from which the woman got her boob. I was like, that’s hilarious and perfect. ”

With its title: “maybe if I take my tit out, they’ll stop explaining my own joke back to me” – that image, a 17th-century painting by German artist Jobst Harrich, became the first tweet in a thread which soon went viral. Tersigni insisted, finding more paintings of men talking to women and women who looked low, and pairing them with deadpan recordings in which men share their insights on topics such as breastfeeding and period pain. Agent of Tersigni, Rachel Sussman, suggested that the thread could be a book. As Tersigni says, “People get it and they want to laugh about it with other people who understand and have been there.”

The book is divided into chapters named after certain (not all) types of men: the Mansplainer, the Concern Troll, the Comedian, the Sexpert, the Patronizer. Comedian Jen Kirkman says in the foreword: “If you’re a guy, you might be attracted right now and want to follow this book and tweet to Nicole, ‘Not all men are male plains!’ “But then you’d be the man who’s a male plaintiff for a woman who apparently knows men, is related to men, has worked with men, is friends with men, so not all men are bad.”

Tersigni tackles contemporary title names with classical paintings in part to reinforce the point that these same misogynistic problems have existed for centuries, and in part because the older the image, the more likely it is in the public domain. Is this art criticism? “Maybe criticism of life,” Tersigni states with a laugh.

She spent weeks screening through online museum databases and selecting artworks. Then she came up with jokes and pasted them on top, creating her own collage-like works that alternate between brutal honesty and humor. “I tried very hard to make it funny, because that’s what I want to see – humorous versions of awkward or strange or frustrating situations I’ve been in,” says Tersigni, who has no artistic background but experience. has in improv comedy. “I feel like everyone needs to take a class at some point to learn how to have a conversation.”

In The Mansplainer, Barend Graat’s Company in a Garden (1661), which shows a corset young woman rummaging around a garden for a litter of men, cats try to explain away: ‘You must be fluttering that they find you attractive enough about harassment. In The Patronizer, the top-notch gentleman in Market Henrioss tells Jean Henri de Coene (1827) that the woman forgets a large basket on her head: “I can see that you’re very busy, but I just had to tell you that you’ve been so much more beautiful when you smile. ”

I ask Tersigni if ​​there is a certain kind of man they are least trying to avoid. “They all bloom together,” she says. ‘But the one I really opposed the most is the Comedian. He not only explains your jokes to you, he also tells you to lighten up and get a sense of humor when you are not laughing at his crazy jokes. ‘

And their own gags? Is she more proud of some than others? She is that, though that does not mean she always translates. ‘My daughter, who is nine, read the whole thing, crawled up and started quoting it from me, which was nice. Then she told me one of my jokes – ‘I know my ass smells like hamster cage, but you have to wash your feet well before I touch you.’ I said, ‘You know what, that’s one of my favorites.’ And she said, ‘That was the only one I did not get.’ ”