In this diptych, I appropriate the format of the dakimakura—the Japanese "hugging pillow" that traditionally presents a character in a duality of innocence and sexual availability—to represent myself as an object of consumption. I paint my body within this market logic but intervene on the surface with embroidery to subvert the expectations of desire.

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On the panel where I appear "innocent," I embroider the figure of Ayase Mina (from the hentai Sexfriend). Far from being a victim, she embodies active sexual agency and the control of pleasure; I stitch explicit desire directly onto the "pure" skin. Conversely, over my naked, eroticized self-portrait, I embroider Sawako Kuronuma (from the shōjo Kimi ni Todoke). By juxtaposing these images, I demonstrate that even the blush of a cheek or the act of holding hands possesses an erotic charge, as both are products of a sexualized narrative.

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This visual operation engages with Alex Quicho’s theory in Everyone Is a Girl Online, where "the girl" is a category inherently linked to capital. By becoming a dakimakura, I assume what Quicho terms "tactical passivity": I inhabit the form of the commodity to dismantle it from within. Through what Rozsika Parker defines as "the subversive stitch," the thread disrupts the smooth, compliant surface of the oil paint, suturing a narrative where the woman is not a passive body waiting to be used, but a complex entity that manages and contradicts her own image.