Seminar 4 - Activism, Politics and Authorship (click to comment)
Theresa O’Keefe - ‘My Body is My Manifesto! Slutwalk, Femen, and Femenist Protest’
Are women who dress provocatively are sluts? Who gets to decide how a woman displays her body? Society today seems to believe these questions are up for debate. But Theresa O’Keefe wants to look deeper into these issues and the way in which SlutWalk and FEMEN deal with them.
SlutWalk and FEMEN have policies and standings with some good points, but there are a number of flaws. SlutWalk is a feminist group which fight against the idea that scantily clad women are asking to be raped and how the word “slut” is used by society and police. The walkers usually wear burlesque and what’s considered “slutty” attire and often have the word “slut” written across their chest or on signage. The whole atmosphere of the walks is centered around a sense of gaiety, similar to Pride, and seems more celebratory seeing “slut” as sense of pride. This is where O’Keefe points out a crucial flaw in SlutWalk. There’s controversy over claiming back “slut” because it sends mixed signals, in particularly to adolescents. In order to not be labeled a slut you must dress like one? Maybe the issue isn’t in the word but rather in the perception of the clothing. Would it be more effective to dress provocatively and hold signs which say “NOT a slut” or “Beautiful” instead to redefine what the clothing means? O’Keefe points out that the irony of their use of “slut” goes unnoticed to those observing. Men in particular only see their fantasies on display.
SlutWalk - London
FEMEN is a bit more provocative. Women walk around topless with writing across chests and there is more a sense of defiance and sextremism. The purpose is to grab media attention, and they do. With the leaders of FEMEN being Amazonian in beauty with Ukrainian garland of flowers on their heads and sometimes heavy makeup, it’s difficult not to think FEMEN looks more like a magazine spread than a feminist group. FEMEN began as a way to reclaim feminism in Kyiv, but the whole image of it meets exactly what male fantasy conventionally is. In addition, their role models being, well, models in appearance, further defeats the purpose of a free body being any body because those not physically fit seem to be discriminated against.
In life drawing I enjoy having a variety of bodies to draw because it makes the pieces more interesting week after week. It has also taught me to see the beauty in every body I come across, not just the ones that are deemed “conventionally attractive” in society. Some beauty ad campaigns have begun doing this, such as Aerie showing more natural looking females modeling their clothes. This celebration of diversity is seriously lacking in the SlutWalk and FEMEN groups.
Aerie - The Real Me
Most of those depicted in SlutWalk and FEMEN have been young, white women, meaning they’re not very diverse. In addition, “slut” is more often associated with white women and how they dress while black women are more often defined solely based on their skin color. Since “slut” is also more often associated with slimmer women, SlutWalk doesn’t always encompass different ideas of beauty, body, and orientation. FEMEN calls for women to go topless and ignores the sense of shame associated with that display. For some races, a history of being displayed naked does not seem to agree with baring a bare chest today. On the whole, what FEMEN does objectifies the woman instead of empowering them. It reminds me of Sarah Baartman, the Venus Hottentot, and how that image seemed very close to the cover Kim Kardashian did in “Kim breaks the internet.” Instead of seeing a confident woman, I saw a woman on display for public viewing, just like Sarah Baartman. It makes me wonder why we won’t focus on the mind of the woman? Are you just showing women as being defined as beautiful based on their bodies alone? These feminist groups seem more interested in the physical sense of a woman, but their efforts seem to fall short even there.
Sarah Baartman “Venus Hottentot” and Kim Kardashian
While SlutWalk and FEMEN show the female body in explicit ways which doesn’t succeed in changing the patriarchal signifiers, rather it enforces them, they do demonstrate the struggle of the female body and what defines feminine protest. SlutWalk and FEMEN are more pastiche, as O’Keefe mentions, but end up just showcasing and repeating the norms of society instead of turning them on their heads and ridiculing them. O’Keefe mentions Postfeminism in her article as well. She seems to view it as women taking control and celebrating their sexuality and freedom, but in ways which border on pornographic depiction with stripper heals and pole dancing. What if the women celebrated as beautiful were photographed with clothing that covered more? Would that show that they were successful because of what they’ve done with their minds and beautiful while still fully clothed? You shouldn’t have to dress provocatively in order to be considered beautiful, strong within yourself, or a feminist. In the end, it’s difficult to define “feminism” when not everyone may agree on its definition, values, or concerns.
Personally, I think that the media has a significant influences in all this and O’Keefe fails to mention this. While the Aerie campaign for The Real Me makes some strides in the world of modeling, what about other industries? Women have a right to want to look or feel sexy, but what defines “sexy?” Seems like the media has better control of its definition than women do. For example, Margot Robbie’s costume in Suicide Squad as Harley Quinn was incredibly provocative. I don’t believe she had much say in her outfit, and so she had to prance around in shorts that were better defined as underwear. In previews of her next film as that character, Birds of Prey , you can see her shorts are slightly longer, though still very short. By gaining some credibility in successfully portraying the character in the first film, Margot Robbie maybe was able to influence how the character dressed in the second, allowing her to lesson (slightly) how provocatively attired she was. It makes me think, how does media contribute to slutshaming? Seems as though they both encourage dressing like a slut but then support the shaming of the women who do.
Margot Robbie - Suicide Squad
Margot Robbie - Birds of Prey
The SlutWalk and FEMEN groups don’t seem to be ones I would want to participate in, namely because I’m not sure they hit the mark intended. I’d be interested to see a movement where women dress however they want, ball gown, bikini, jeans and a button down blouse, and hold up signs that say “I feel beautiful” to show that beauty and feeling sexy has more to do with how you feel and not what you wear. For me, an even better depiction of a woman reclaiming her power is the play Gaslight where at the end the woman is holding the power in her hand and mocking the man who made her believe she was crazy. The ending scene is powerful, impactful, and empowering, it resinates much more with me on the power of women than either SlutWalk or FEMEN do.
Gaslight (1944) - Ingrid Bergman
Sometimes our causes aren’t understood. For example, one season of Project Runway had a theme of “What do you care about” and the designer Tessa Clark created one about body image. The main idea behind her design had to do with her own personal experiences, but unfortunately this didn’t translate well and the outfit fell flat on design. Similarly, SlutWalk and FEMEN both fall short of properly conveying their cause to the public, there is a misunderstanding and disconnect between the visual portrayed and the underlying message. But then again, maybe there isn’t one blanket way to express feminism.
Project Runway - Season 17 - Episode 10 What Do You Care About - Tessa Clarke - BravoTV
References
O’Keefe, T. (2014) ‘My Body is My Manifesto! Slutwalk, Femen, and Femenist Protest,’ Feminist Review, 107, pp. 1-19.
Links
https://raceandmediablog.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/sarah-baartman/
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/21/14315372/what-is-gaslighting-gaslight-movie-ingrid-bergman