Photographer Phumzile Khanyile explores beyond the tragic boundaries of what her grandmother would consider a “good woman”, probing stereotypical ideas of gender, sexual preference and related stigmas and their relevance in contemporary society. The result is the project Plastic Crowns, which stems from the idea of taking a perceived ‘prestigious’ ornament such as a beauty pageant crown and turning it into an object that anyone can purchase and thus enthrone themselves. The body of work is a journey of self-discovery, being raised by her grandmother who had stereotypical ideas of what it means to be a woman often left Phumzile suffocated. Phumzile states: “This work is me wrestling. What if we allowed girls to sit with their legs open too…”