Street Harassment and Slut Walks

The F Word, a blog 'dedicated to talking about and sharing ideas on contemporary UK feminism', last week posted an article regarding women's views on 'lads mags'. Describing our society as a patriarchy and 'culture that persistently objectifies women', I was keen to think about the manner in which women are presented as sexual objects and the effect this has upon both ourselves and society as a whole. Everyday harassment is a concern addressed by BBC Radio 4's 'My Name Is Not 'Hey Baby'', a programme which discussed such issues surrounding street harassment and where men and women draw the line 'between a flirtatious comment and unwanted attention', while online communities such Hollaback! London offer a space for victims to tell their stories, and, I feel most importantly, bring light to events that occur daily and yet are often overlooked.

I myself was present at the Newcastle Slut Walk in 2011, not as a protester but the document the event - the walk, and others around the world were organised in reaction to comment from a policeman in Toronto, stating "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised." Both women and men took to the streets dressed as "sluts" to argue that women have to right to dress as they choose and not feel they are to be blamed for sexual harassment, assault and rape. Visiting the  Gillian Wearing at the Whitechapel Gallery, works such as her iconic series 'Signs that say what you want them to say, and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say' bought to mind the signs of the Slut Walkers, and of Suffragettes before them. Wearing's work forces us to consider how we present ourselves to the world, whilst also often presenting a chance to take on a different role through works such as 'Confess All On Video. Don’t Worry, You Will Be In Disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian… (1994)', in which the use of a mask allowed speakers to voice secrets in anonymity. piece '10-16' in which adults lip synch the voices of 7 adolescents who discuss their lives and concerns. A separation between voice and representation is something I am keen to explore in my own work, the beginnings of which can be seen in the experimental work below. Here, developing from previous ideas of desires, security, comfort and childhood, I manipulated appropriated children's toys to incorporate text from the signs of the Slut Walkers. Toys functional as transitional objects in childhood development, and, as Winnicott proposes, takes the place of the mother; the realisation that the mother is separate from the child causes a sense of loss, and such toys allow the child to "create" what it desires. The lack of phallic signifier eradicates a sense of a gendered speaker, and thus the direct address of their messages are interchangeable. Similar to my earlier patchwork quilt, I hoped that the combination of objects traditionally associated with comfort and confrontational, and even sexually suggestive, text would present an uncomfortable viewing position, and blur the line between speaker and representation.

I felt that perhaps these text pieces were too literal; use of slogans from a specific event gave them a very fixed context, and it was commented that they seem almost like advertising, in which the audience is hit with the message and "get it", without them, or the work having to do more. While the idea of phallocentrism, particularly in relation to childhood, is something I want to develop in my work, I have to question whether such blunt text is the most accurate way to explore such thoughts - these pieces, after all, present a view which the majority of my audience will already hold, and I hope to create works which challenge and question rather than reaffirm.