Casi Martinez

The series, "Bringing Home the Bacon" 2023, takes into question the position of a woman in a predominantly male occupation. Just as women are marginalized in photography, this marginalization extends to other male-dominated professions. Working behind a butcher block counter is not a position traditionally associated with a woman. Instead, the grueling, often messy, and bloody work has historically been viewed as a job suited for men as it is within the boundary of what is socially acceptable—manipulating what is appropriate for one gender to do over another. The imagery investigates the topography of the duality of assigned biological genders.

According to Statista.com, only approximately 25% of butchers and other meat-related positions belong to women. As part of that limited percentage, I was compelled to create a series relating to the experience of being a woman in an environment that has contradicted what society has traditionally deemed an acceptable role for my gender. Working with the different types of meats and seafood inspired me to give these mundane objects an unconventional purpose. During the process of using expired meat to create art, the addition of decomposition was recorded on the paper. Embracing the imperfections of the final results is part of the process, just as the flaws are unique to the individual. Bacon became the catalyst for my experimentation of traditional roles against the atypical.

Bringing Home the Bacon is a phrase commonly associated with a man or husband going to work and bringing home the money to support the family. Through my work, I challenge how we mentally view traditional societal roles—rearranging what an acceptable position for an individual to undertake in their life is.