FLINTA* Voices create space to speak without restriction, without dilution, and without apology. We opened our platform to FLINTA* writers and creators who confront and redefine gendered realities, who understand empowerment not as a trend, but as necessity, and who expose patriarchy not as abstraction, but as lived experience.

This Body is not yours

This body is not yours to take

but still you do

or at least attempt to

again and again

with greedy hands

and lusting eyes

trying to break my barrier down

step by step

shooting words like arrows at me

through my skin

through my chest

making me bleed

but blood you crave

like a vulture

waiting

haunting after me

This body is not yours to take

but still you claim it as yours

as if I’m your doll

in the dollhouse you built

Trying to police what I wear,

how to act,

what to say

and how and in which way to use my body

And every step I take

to carve my boundaries

deeper into the ground

and trying to uphold them

you run over them,

flatten them,

ignore my every

‘No!’

‘I don’t want to!’

‘Leave me alone!’

You are just shooting more arrows into my skin

making me bleed

but blood you crave

like a hyena

waiting

And like playing with dolls,

playing god,you also think

you have the authority

to decide

who gets to live

and who has to die

You take our lives

one by one

like drops of rain falling

but this rain is red

like blood

but blood is what you crave

like a beast

waiting

This body is not yours to take

and enough is enough!

It has been for a long time already

You don’t get to decide for me!

You don’t get to decide how I live my life!

I’m burning down the dollhouse

YOU built for me

which I never wanted

and breaking all the rules

I didn’t need

I’m defining the keystones of my life new

My body is just mine and nobody else’s

and so is my life!

About the Author

Luna Maluna Gri (*1999) is an Austrian multimedia artist, living and working in Vienna. At present she studies Transmedia Art (class Jakob Lena Knebl) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her current fields of interest in her work are feminist issues, memories, rooms (physical, emotional and societal ones), identity and emotions coming up in all these processes, how we want to live our life, change and freedom. Recent exhibitions and performances include the Biennale Sessions at the 60th Biennale di Venezia, PARALLEL Vienna, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Kunsthaus Nürnberg, Belvedere 21 and Burgtheater Vienna.

@lunamalunagri