Like a Terrible Fish

Like a Terrible Fish is a video piece that critiques the toxic beauty standards imposed on women by mass media, exposing how self-objectification leads to body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and diminished self-worth. Blending the poetic with the political, the work disrupts traditional film narratives through Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, creating a fragmented, surreal collage of symbols, sounds, and imagery that mirrors the subconscious mind’s chaotic nature. Inspired by Surrealism, Confessional Poetry, Experimental Film, and the Theatre of Cruelty, it draws from Sylvia Plath’s poem The Mirror to explore the tension between empowerment and entrapment. By interrogating the relationship between media, women, and mirrors, the piece urges a critical reexamination of the cultural forces that equate female worth with youth and beauty rather than intellect and leadership.