CONSENT IN A MARGINALIZED BODY

Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (1965) studies the limits of consent and how it is colored by identity. Ono sits silently in the middle of a stage next to a pair of scissors and a note that reads, “You may come up and take a piece of my clothes. Take it with you.” In an interview, Ono identified a dual meaning in the piece that recognizes that “you’re doing this to women,” but also regains power by creating the conditions under which the act occurs (Ono). Instead of secret violence which is shielded from view, Cut Piece demands to be seen and invokes all members of the audience to participate. Ono presents herself as a willing body with instructions of her consent. However, this overlooks how the intersections of gender and race affect how her body is viewed.

The audience’s actions reveal complexities in consent based on the positionality of the participants. One by one, audience members approach and slice a piece of clothing from her body. The physical differences of gender, stature, and clothing are all flattened as they approach her body and repeat the same gestures. In this performance, all of the participants are noticeably white. Within this white mass, their personalities are revealed through where they choose to cut and how large of a piece it is. Ono aims for this to be an empowering piece, but the energy of the audience and mob mentality threatens to strip this power from her.

Aware of their spotlight, audience members perform for each other and encourage more provocative behavior. All the while, Ono sits straight-faced at center stage. In this iteration, a white man looks out to the audience and backstage instead of her, (Youtube 00:06:22) then directs the scissors into her chest (Youtube 00:06:34). Ono almost stops him out of instinct but remains still and committed to the performance. She looks away, obviously uncomfortable, as he cuts through her shirt and bra straps (Youtube 00:06:38, 00:07:75), forcing Ono to hold up the bra. The conflict between consenting to the performance and wanting to speak out is visible on Ono’s face (Youtube 00:06:01). In this moment of tension, Ono’s struggle extends beyond her body and is symbolic of all women of color enduring situations where they are silenced. This interaction demonstrates how the white patriarchy disrupts any potential for female and racial liberation. One begins to question the boundaries of consent, how willing Ono was for this participant’s actions, and how consent shifts between bodies.

Because of her continued silence, even as her face calls out for help (Youtube 00:07:27), Ono ultimately reinforces female and Asian passivity despite her intention to do the opposite. The degree to which at least one audience member comes close to violating Ono’s consent suggests that one can never assume a white audience’s goodwill and civility towards a person of color who they may not see as fully human. The performance demonstrates how consent does not exist in a vacuum but is shaped by the positionality of each participant and the white patriarchy.

Works Cited

Ono, Yoko. “Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964: Moma.” The Museum of Modern Art, 

https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/15/373. 

“Yoko Ono - Cut Piece 1965 - Music Yoko Ono Darkness Georgia Stone.avi.” Youtube, 2011, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2IgqYiaywU. Accessed 26 Jan. 2022.