Grace Quintero

Are we sluts?

I have always been an advocate to speaking for women’s rights, and I wanted to choose a subject which moved me to create a whole project out of it. In this world filled with women oppression, what could be my little contribution

-Slut shaming -Space privacy invasion / cat calling -Rape jokes -Rape/assault culture

Even though I have many things to say about all those subjects, I wanted to focus of the slut shaming topic, as it is becoming more and more popular thanks to social media and the easy access to the entertainment world.

What is sexual freedom? Do women get to ever experience this freedom? If a man wants to go out and have sex with a stranger, he is recognized as an alpha male and praised; but if a woman does the exact same thing, what is thought of her? It has been hard for us women to explore, experiment and be safe at the same time, mostly because we live in a society that praises men for having sex and slut shame women for doing the same thing.

Whore, slut, bitch, and others are used nowadays freely to referring to women everywhere in the world. Either they have had sex or not, slut shaming is a way to call women for whatever action they have done in their lives or the society. Slut-shaming is the practice of criticizing people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate expectations of behavior and appearance regarding issues related to sexuality. Slut shaming as an insult has become more and more popular now a days thanks to social media. But even before that, these terms were used to denigrate women and insult them for whatever reason you can possibly think of. What disturbs me the most is that these terms are not only used by men referring to women, but to women against each other. I have found it baffling the fact that TV, movies and music have found a way to make slut shaming and name calling a way of referring to women, and make it seem as something normal.

REFERENCES

“Suadarios” Erika Diettes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkaGZdK86xY

Fragile material hanging from the walls, with the video projection.

To do: Find a fragile material for projection of video.

Fragile material representing how careless we are with the female body, yet, we treat it like trash. Even the most powerful human being has feelings, and they can be easily destroyed with even just one word.

Inspiration:

Candice Bretz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvXr5QQbkqc

Theme Female slut shaming.

Idea To confront “slut shamers” on TV and movies, with female counterparts who are shutting down stereotypes, and owning their own sexuality.

Everyday, we watch on movies and TV how the free female sexuality is called offensive names, and even put up for slut shaming those women who are owners of their sexuality. We are taught that is it okay to judge a woman by the quantity of men she has slept with, and that we are allowed to call her offensive names if the doesn’t follow the “social conduct” of women being stuck with just one man, and having sex with her husband only.

Once I had my topic chosen, I wanted to make a video installation, using as a guide to Candice Britz, as I have been following her work for a while now. I enjoy the fact that she uses everyday multimedia products and gives them a new meaning with her own techniques of appropriation. She has been known to work with Hollywood stars and Hollywood material to express her thoughts on society and what is wrong with it. I wanted to give it a try playing around with the original footage I used.

For my project, I wanted to focus on the harm that these names do to women, and how used we are getting to be called like that. How easily it has been to have these names heard on TV and movies, and the fact that new generations are seeing this behavior like a regular thing to do. I wanted to focus on phrases and words said on TV shows that denigrate women. First, I wanted to focus on the fact that men are the ones who call women bad names, but in the middle of my investigation, after hours stuck to my Netflix account, I was hit with the savage truth that women are mostly slut shamed by other women. I wanted to show that men are the ones that still oppress and categorize women, but it was harder for me to find men using these words, and easier to find women themselves calling each other with these awful names.

VIDEO FOOTAGE

SLUT SHAMERS ON TV:

Dawson’s creed slut shaming grandma

“have you no respect for yourself”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCaNLhNmGu4

Clueless (1995)

“you are a virgin who can’t drive”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY0bHULptWQ

The girlmore girls

“hi im not a whore, enjoy your day”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddPmMJOhFEY

13 reasons why

“that’s what sluts do”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSLBzj9P9Tw

how I met your mother

“I call slut”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-3ummmR-Y4

“Where is that whore”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IiztuvTAD0

“prude alert” “slut alert”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptr50a6p7S4

mean girls “slut calling”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0JMoa4QfA0

“she’s such a slut” / “booh you whore” mean girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf5ENxerlJU

FEMALE VOICES

“you have no right to be repulsed by my sex life”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnIVGcCbI70

“if you said you haven’t, you are a prude”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EbZ_F4VbwE

“slut”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jwa4wXtNjo

Easy A (shamer and answer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZP20y0R2Q

dazed and confused

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbRhuUtKHV4

Speech in mean girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGGBbxXgFug

golden girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=redQ_7PoD_E

Scandal -slut shaming shut down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1oyIEgDWAQ

Female characters who shamelessly love sex

http://www.gurl.com/2016/01/19/sexually-liberated-female-characters/

Sex, Women and TV: 21 Shows That Changed the Way We See Female Desire

http://time.com/2969986/masters-of-sex-television-female-sexuality/

After hours of research, I made a list of TV and movies material where the characters show and empower woman secure of her sexuality, in contrast to those who shamed her. After that, I decided to focus only in those dialogs that questioned female behavior and judged her for being who she is. I concluded that men are not as slut shamed as women are, then I asked myself: what would happen if I had men say the same phrases female characters say? How would they react? How would their faces be? So, I subtracted audios from popular TV shows and movies and asked some friends to say them out loud to the camera.

PHRASES TO BE SAID

A dirty skank

Booh, you whore

Agh, slut

Regina says everyone hates you, cause you’re such a slut…. You didn’t hear it from me

I think I just called you a slut, slut

People forget about her, cause she’s such a slut

Prude Alert… (laughs) slut alert

Shut up slut

Cause that’s what sluts do

So, guys have it all, the madona and the whore… women get nothing

If you say you haven’t, you’re a prude. If you say you haven’t you’re a slut, it’s a trap

This behavior will not be tolerated

Hi, im not a whore, enjoy your day

That’d be me sir.

Do you think I'm a whore?

Nobody wants to marry a whore.

You're a virgin who can't drive

What I found out that even though their expressions weren’t 100% committed (they are not actors), it made them a little concern the fact that all their lines where told by women to women. They were uncomfortable with some phrases and made them very self-aware. In my first montage video, I experimented with color correction because I wanted to show extra feelings and message through color.

https://vimeo.com/272729990

But in the process, I realized that the words had to be strong enough to send their own message. Also, with the montage I wanted to emphasize the annoyance of the words, and the impact they can have in the viewer when they heard those words in such a continuous order. At the end, I focused more in Candice Breitz’ montage stile, and let the words and image speak for themselves.

Final video

https://vimeo.com/291473106

The final piece was a four-way video projected in the wall of the classroom by a video beam.

It was a bit of a harsh reality to notice that us women can get to be our own enemy. We are a huge force of strength, capable of amazing abilities that men can’t do. When I first started working on this subject, and thinking of what I wanted to criticize, I was convinced that men were the main responsible ones of the oppression of women, but I came to the sad reality that women are sabotaging the way of our own sisters. Of course, throughout history, the female figure has always had a submissive role under the male counterpart, I cannot deny that. But us women have become in an intern allied to bully other women and judge them according to male’s point of view of what women should be. The day we stop calling each other bad names, judging the other’s decision, and start building a sisterhood instead of enemy’s zones, we will move forward in our own society, and we could start facing the patriarchy’s real oppression. Us women must stick together in order to fight all of our unbalanced issues in this men-controlled society. We must start questioning TV and movies and the message they are sending to people of all ages (especially younger ones) and start dealing with the consequences these names are having in so many young women around the world.

== Exhibit in Summaery 2018 ==

https://vimeo.com/291473819

SOURCES

http://www.thelist.com/81926/misogynistic-90s-movie-moments-thatll-make-cringe-today/

http://www.thelist.com/79978/misogynistic-90s-tv-moments-thatll-make-cringe-today/

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a18880/gilmore-girls-heartbreaking-realizations/

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a21825/13-reasons-why-slut-shaming-teen-suicide/

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a12817417/trump-gillibrand-tweet-cat-person-calling-women-whore/

slut shaming video compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNxuT7PpP7Y

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Slutshaming

http://www.gurl.com/2014/09/14/movies-that-challenge-slut-shaming-sexism/#1