If The Rape doesn’t elicit a “WTF?!” response from you, then it’s likely that nothing ever will… you sick freak.

The inspiration for this painting is rooted in Magritte’s mother’s suicide. Rumor has it that Magritte saw his mother’s body pulled from the river in which she drowned herself, with her nightgown covering only her face, leaving the rest of her body completely exposed. (His other painting, The Lovers should make more sense to you now.) You can imagine the effect this had on a 14 year old boy. Mommy issues, the likes of which this world has never seen.

So this piece is definitely mommy-centric but it also has to do with the fact that a lot of the time men just see women as exuding sex all the time; hence the boobs for eyes, belly button for nose, and bajingo for mouth. And the cherry on to top of this misogyny sundae is the fact that the abs on this face-woman are toned af. So not only are women seen as walking sex, we are also seen as walking sex with a mildly unrealistic fitness guru body. At least Magritte is bringing this to our attention and pointing out the ridiculousness of this perversion even if it doesn’t change the fact that some men see nipples when they should see pupils.

Also the badly-executed Farrah Fawcett hair is suspiciously pubic and the face and neck are suspiciously phallic so one can infer that this is where the title shows up in the work. “It is the rape in progress, the phallus of the face or torso, penetrating the pubic mound.”

Hopefully now, you are thoroughly confused and disturbed by the entire image.