With Slut and SlutWalk heading for Western Australia soon, the discussion over the portrayal of women is about to heat up just in time for Pride.
SLUT THE PLAY
Next month, an all-female cast will present the WA premiere of Slut at the Blue Room Theatre. Slut follows the story of a young party girl who embraces the label and finds the attention can fun… for a while. Slut performer Georgia King said there was a delicate balance between self-expression and social expectations.
‘It’s really easy for the media or even general people to make blanket statements or judgements about people based on very little,’ King said.
‘…This play kind of explores this idea … there’s always more to the story than just what you might see or what you might think.’
The play is based on the real story of a young woman who was attacked by her boyfriend in a Melbourne nightclub in 2007. A man was killed and another seriously wounded in the nightclub shooting after trying to help the young woman. Newspapers raided the young woman’s MySpace page and labelled her a ‘party girl who liked fast things’.
King found the term ‘demoralising’ and said women had no defence against the insult.
‘If you dress a certain way, you have to understand people are going to make those judgements about you but you also have to dress as you want.’
‘It’s so loaded and its so gender specific… but you know you wouldn’t hear a heterosexual man be called a slut and there’s very little retort that anyone can have if you are labelled a slut. ‘There’s nothing good about it.’
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SLUT THE WALK
In December, women will be marching through Perth for the first ever SlutWalk in Western Australia. SlutWalk is a women’s movement from around the world that erupted this year. It started in January when a Toronto police constable told a safety forum that women ‘should stop dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised’.
Since those fateful remarks, thousands of women have marched in over 70 cities across the globe to raise awareness of sexual assault.
The timing of Slut, coinciding with the Pride Month celebrations, may give same-sex attracted people some perspective on how we use the term in our community compared to how it’s used in heterosexual society. The Blue Room Theatre presents Slut next month from November 1 – 19. For more information about SlutWalk, find the Facebook page ‘Slutwalk Perth 2011’.
Benn Dorrington
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