Saturday, November 3, 2012

Performance, or just a nut?

[originally posted Thursday, November 1st, 2012]
 
This happens all the time.  Well, not specifically this

I was walking through Grange Park toward Queen Street to get onto a streetcar—my thesis class was going gallery hopping.  On my way there were two girls walking in my opposite direction.  One was short, wore glasses, and was wearing pants and a hoodie, the other was taller (though she was wearing white, plastic, platform shoes), heavy makeup, a sweater and a schoolgirl skirt.  I glimpsed them, and I thought they were arguing, they certainly were talking loudly.

Suddenly, the taller one broke away.  She looked angry and she stomped off towards my direction.  As she did so, she tore away her skirt.  She was naked underneath her skirt.  It took me a minute to register that.  I think I naturally assumed that she was wearing skin-coloured tights, I didn’t realised that I was looking at her pubic hair/bare crotch until I saw a little old Asian woman from the other side point and yell out something to the effect of “what are you doing”, “what the hell??” in whatever language, and her friend shouting after her to stop.

I was stunned, and I tried not to look directly at her as she walked passed me.  I lowered my head and I tried to stifle a giggle into my coffee cup.

I looked ahead and her friend was still at the site where the checkered skirt lay on the wet floor, trying to come up with words.  The old woman drew closer to her, trying to figure out what happened.  A group of boys also passing by stopped and craned their necks to see the girl’s naked rear as she continued on through the park.  I wanted to look back, but a part of me didn’t want to register what just happened as an actual occurrence.

This happened around noon, and I’m still trying to figure out what was happening…  A part of me thinks it could have been a performance.  I’m never really sure what is reality and what is an act of reality around the OCAD area.

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