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| Performance artist vows to become Perfect Woman | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Albert Ching, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| February 14, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
“I kept having people ask me why I didn’t have a boyfriend, or try to fix me up with somebody,” says Oman, a 30-something southern Arizona woman. “I feel that there’s a lot of cultural pressure to pair up and ‘do what it takes’ to be in a relationship, even if it’s extreme, or fake.” Oman conceived this project as a way to criticize society’s commodification of romance and obsession with perfection. “It started with the idea of, ‘Maybe I should just concede to cultural pressures,’ ” says Oman, who will only divulge her stage name (which, with the Delia W., is an anagram of “ideal woman”). “Considering all the self-help books for women, and all of the reality TV shows where people are going on dates, I decided to take it full-on.” In November, Oman launched a Web site for her Perfect Woman Project. Part satire and part performance art, Oman solicited submissions that describe each person’s own perfect woman. Some responses are sweet (one man lovingly described his now-deceased significant other); others are, as could be expected, a little dirty (one participant described certain parts of the female anatomy in graphic detail). Overall, Oman has been pleasantly surprised by the submissions on her site. “Looks have almost not come up at all. Race hasn’t come up at all,” says Oman, who has kept herself anonymous for a number of reasons, including not wanting submissions to be influenced by her appearance. “It’s really about how people relate to each other. “Of 37 entries so far, (only) three guys have mentioned breasts.” Submissions are closed, and today — Valentine’s Day — is the start of the voting process. Interested parties choose which perfect woman description they like the best, and Oman will then “change anything and everything” to become that person’s perfect woman. And she’s intent on honoring that promise — even if that means going under the knife. “It’s really common for people to get plastic surgery,” says Oman. “If it’s something way outside of the norm, then I probably won’t do it. “Based on the submissions, I don’t think it’s going to be anything too drastic.” Oman will then fly the writer of the winning submission to her town (which she also won’t divulge) for a series of dates, to be broadcast online. She’s drafted a contract so the winner understands the dates are about art, not romance. “I just want to be really clear: This is a project. Neither of us have any obligations to each other afterwards,” says Oman, who has scheduled the final part of the project to end in May. This isn’t Oman’s first project of this nature. In 2006, she also transformed herself into a “blonde bimbo media icon” with fake hair, tan, eyelashes and nails, and lived that way for six months. Though it may seem like a circuitous way of making a point, Oman hopes women can learn from her transformations that you shouldn’t have to change yourself to be happy. “Why be self-conscious, and do all this dieting, and all this crazy stuff, when there’s a guy out there who probably likes you just as you are?” Contact Albert Ching by email, or phone (480) 898-5688 |
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