This project was born out of rage.
When women’s rights are rolled back — when access to abortion, contraception, and bodily autonomy is stripped away by those in power — silence is never neutral. It becomes complicity.
Suck it up is my protest.
I chose the pacifier as a symbol because it’s an object that quiets you. It turns a cry into silence. It trains obedience. It says: you’re not allowed to speak.
But what happens when a grown woman is forced to wear one?
I sculpted these pacifiers by hand, from porcelain — fragile, like we are told we are. But also sharp-edged, fire-hardened, and permanent, like our resistance.
Each piece is glazed in striking, symbolic colors.
Red for blood. Green for poison. White for enforced purity.
They aren’t meant to comfort. They’re meant to confront.
Red for blood. Green for poison. White for enforced purity.
They aren’t meant to comfort. They’re meant to confront.
In the photographs, I wear them.
My lips are gagged, but my eyes say everything.
I am not a child. I am not silent. I am not small.
My lips are gagged, but my eyes say everything.
I am not a child. I am not silent. I am not small.
The phrase “suck it up” is something women hear all our lives.
Stop complaining. Be nice. Deal with it.
This work turns those words against themselves. It says: We see what you’re doing. We refuse.
Every woman — regardless of country, culture, or religion — has the right to choose what happens to her body.
That is non-negotiable.
Suck it up is not a decorative project.
It’s a feminist scream in ceramic form.
It’s a feminist scream in ceramic form.
It’s a refusal to be silenced.
A visual protest.
A visual protest.
A reminder that the body is political — and we’re not giving ours up.
