This piece is a modern recontextualization of the Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. It is known as one of the most famous paintings in the world and has been referenced in pop culture countless times. The pose is a significant factor in my choosing this work. In Western art, the venus pudica is the famous pose of an idealized naked female covering her private parts with her hand. The term “pudica” has its origins in Latin meaning external genitalia, or shame. It is a vulnerable pose depicting an attempt to cover herself which intrinsically draws the ones eyes to the very areas she tries to conceal, resulting in her pubis and breasts becoming focal points of the pose, which arguably reduces her to her anatomy. It should be noted that a defining element of objectification is the focus on specific body parts. My modern recontextualization takes the objectification of women prevalent throughout history demonstrated in  this painting from the 15th century by parodying it to convey the new form it takes on today. It serves as a critique of the commodification of women's bodies birthed by our capitalist society and psychological warfare designed to infiltrate womens minds so that we do the work of the oppressor within ourselves. It also shows how beauty standards are not actually about beauty, but class. Beauty standards are constantly changing, which is reflected in the body type of Venus - considered ideal in the 15th century- not fitting in what would be considered the ideal body type today, since “beauty” standards are actually based on what displays wealth at various points in time. It always roots back to capitalism. Hence the barcodes, specifically placed under the focal points of the pose to highlight how specific parts of female anatomy are viewed as assets both financially and socially. The oversaturation of certain parts of the figure symbolizes both the strive for this ever changing beauty standard that is becoming increasingly more unnatural and inhuman, as well as the literal oversaturation and abundance of the idealized exposed female body, especially in the age of the internet, represented by my choice of rendering parts as if they are glitching. The butterfly and flowers, similar to women, are both naturally occurring beauties which go through the cycles of life, in which there is a certain duration where humans deem them beautiful. Female oppression has not gone away with equality under the law but has taken on a new form as we have been so manipulated and socially conditioned to the point of doing the work of the oppressor within ourselves while he sits back and gets richer. Our minds have been infiltrated so that we self police, manifesting in the overwhelming self hatred, insecurity, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and paying to subject our bodies to the legal violence that is cosmetic surgery. Hence the flower being stitched up at a certain state in its growth, an attempt at preservation which ultimately can never stop it from wilting. Who would do that to a flower? If sentient, what would drive a flower to do that to itself? . Notice how the butterfly is not flying free. It is pinned up, on display, a being reduced to its appearance of its physical vessel- the purpose of a physical vessel is to experience life through its functions, not to spend life picking apart the vessel. That is how women are conditioned to such a severe extent it is not even questioned. This 24x30 inch acrylic and oil painting raises that question.