Thread by @monaeltahawy

My body is my canvas for expression and defiance. I refuse to emerge from this as if nothing happened. I refuse “going back to normal.” That is now abnormal. I demand a new and a better. I demand more. I wanted to mark the magnitude of what we’re going through.

My body is my canvas for expression & defiance. I dyed my hair red to say “Fuck you, I survived!”

I got a buzzcut to say “Stay the fuck home so that the most vulnerable can survive! Stay the fuck home so that the elderly, BIPOC, the disabled can survive!”

Buzzcut & 📷 @rerutled

My body is a canvas of expression and defiance. Soon after this I dyed my hair red and got tattoos as gifts to myself for healing and to say “Fuck you, I survived!”

📷 Peter Hapak for @TIME

My body is a canvas for expression and defiance. My left arm needed surgery and a titanium plate and screws. There is a scar that is beautiful and I’m proud of but I did not write it on my canvas.

So I got these as marking of beauty of my choosing.

My body is a canvas for expression and defiance. Eight years ago, I dyed my hair bright red to say “Fuck you, you didn’t kill me. I am still here. I survived. I am not hiding.”

And for eight years now, I have been known for my red.

📷 @remythequill

My body is a canvas for expression and defiance.

I LOVE my red hair. It symbolized so much. It was hard to cut it all off. I am staying home so that the most vulnerable survive; in solidarity with the elderly, BIPOC, the disabled.

I will always defy, disobey, and disrupt.

My body is my canvas for expression and defiance.

So central is my red hair to who I am that the red of my book cover is based on my hair thanks to the @BeaconPressBks design team.

My body will always be my canvas for expression and defiance.

Stay at home for the sake of the most vulnerable; those who Trump and the billionaires don’t give a fuck about.

I cut it all off not just because I miss my colourist. I cut it off because we must all be different.