What's your story?
I wanted to be a university professor since I was 5 years old. Now, I'm a university professor.
What makes you nervous about having your portrait taken?
I want to look glamorous, but in reality I'm not glamorous. I don't want to look silly, but in reality I am a silly person. I mean that in a good way. I guess, I'm nervous because a portrait can capture some truth (or lie) about me and freeze it for people to see.
What do you love doing that makes you feel kick ass?
I love writing articles that get published in academic journals. I love giving public lectures that are well received. I love being in front of a college classroom and commanding respect from those who think only people with penises deserve respect. I love being in front of a college classroom and noticing that the young women are taken by a model of womanhood that they've never seen before. I love making people laugh and feel good about themselves. Recently, I learned that I love doing random acts of kindness. Also, I love waking up with my cats on the bed with me and realizing what an amazing I life I have even though it sucks sometimes, just like everyone else's. All these things make me feel kick ass.
What inspired your portraits?
Mostly my history with Jennifer inspired the content of the portraits. She and I have a lifetime of acting the fool with each other. So, I had no problem posing in a monkey outfit or pretending to pee in a urinal with a polyester suit. I was inspired to participate because I know that this is something major. This is something big. I saw pictures of women whom society says shouldn't show their bodies wearing sexy lingerie or not wearing clothes and I wanted to be a part of that. This project is important and I wanted to be involved -- to hitch my wagon to Jennifer's photo star, as it were.
What bad ass women inspire you?
Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Robinson, Charlotte Smith, Michelle Obama, Marlene Longenecker, Laura Kristy, Stacy Jacobs, women who choose the pronoun they, ze, or he, every woman who says fuck you to the patriarchy. Stormy Daniels. The Stuebenville gang rape survivor. Really, it might be easier to identify the few women who don't inspire me. Heh heh.
27 years of friendship, laughter and bickering.