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Hand embroidery, available here.

When a famous man is found to mistreat women, society and the media tends to deny, minimise and justify their terrible actions. Or straight up victim blame.  

Every time a fan says they still like a famous man or his work, in spite of the way he mistreats women, they are sending the message that his behaviour is permissible.

This attitude is part of a whole culture that romanticises and normalises abusive people, relationships and behaviours.

"Bad boys" are often portrayed as troubled but with a hidden sensitive side, that's supposed to redeem them. This misleads women to deny, minimize and justify the terrible actions of men because they're still a "good person deep down", that they "don't really mean it" and they're "not all bad".

The myth of the bad boy encourages women to overlook the bad in boys and how they mistreat them, to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even in the fact of overwhelming evidence they don't have their best interests at heart.

Women believe that if they could just make them see the pain they're inflicting, they'd change. Nope. They're never sorry, you can't appeal to someone's conscience when they don't have one. The reality is, "bad boys" are just bad people.

I decided to embroider onto some roses. I wanted to subvert the traditional meaning of roses, that signify love and deface them with statements about betrayal.