In this scripted post-first date interaction, Still No Progress explores the enduring spatial organisation of our homes as the set where gendered power dynamics are played out. How does the predictability of our domestic environments allow these power structures to be maintained, or even consciously exercised?

 

This drawing was inspired by Playboy’s Progress, an illustration published in Playboy Magazine in 1954. The drawing, with accompanying stage directions and script, takes the reader through the interaction between ‘playboy & friend’ ‘shortly before midnight’ at ‘Playboy’s Penthouse’. From removing her ‘wrap-confidently’, to passionate embraces in the corner and on the balcony, followed by a slap as the bedroom is suggested as the next destination, the Penthouse is utilised as a set for a masculine power play.

 

Although gender politics have undoubtedly progressed since the attitudes of the 50s, has our unchanged approach to domestic design limited our progress?