New Criticals

It is no accident that the underground world of the Paris metro, carrying its own history of sexual encounter, adds a crucial layer of significance to the larger implications of Princess’s queering or “hijabizing” gestures, which appear in these very spaces. As previously discussed, Princess Hijab’s tags necessitate looking by way of unlawful encounters mobilized by bodies within the urban narrative, a gesture iterative of its very medium—graffiti—which criminally alters State-sanctioned spaces.

Consider, in the following images, the metro's curving ceilings, well-lit, slick cement floors, and peep-hole alcoves. These spaces invoke a sensorium of spatial and emotional measures, intended to control and direct acceptable social behaviors underground.