No Voice, All Body

Leto: Greek goddess of motherhood and modesty

“Leto” means gentle, demure – 

To Hera, she was nothing but 

seductress and harlot, 

Meriting terrible pain and torture,

Solely responsible for Zeus’ infidelity.

To us, she was the perfect “sinner” –

Modest, veiled and yet unchaste. In

motherhood, she found 

her only strength, her only salvation. 

Freyja, Norse goddess of love and fertility

She spent a lifetime shedding tears of gold for

her absentee husband – 

In this image of weeping woman,

We saw Lust. 

In her painful yearning for a Man

who only hurt her, 

We saw a currency to measure a wife’s love. 

Brushes dipped in female tears 

Glide across our canvas, 

Creating portraits of our ladies – 

no voice, all body – 

just the way we think a woman should be.

Sensuality and pain captured within the

perfect frame of chastity and silence.

We’ve made portraits of our ladies and fit

them into divinity 

to justify our reality. 

We’ve made portraits of our ladies,

Made martyrs of victims, 

Romanticised pain as a form of baptism for

women. 

We’ve made portraits of our ladies –

no voice, all body – 

But look closely at these voiceless portraits,

you’ll see a story of hidden pain, 

of terrible burdens, of repressed anger,

all etched into the canvas. 

By Ila Manish, for the Trans Solidarity Fundraiser

• ASHOKA UNIVERSITY
• Trans Solidarity Fundraiser