Be heard on the issues that matter most to you!
I'm using this photo to inaugurate what I hope will be a cool new feature on Sex in the Public Square. It's called Sex Symbols (unless someone suggests a better name for it) and it'll be an examination of material culture connected to sexuality, sex norms, gender roles, and so on.
I'd like this to have a fairly standard format so that it is recognized as a series across the site. The format could look like this: First a photo of the object (here it's a t-shirt but it could be anything that is tangible), then "What" (a brief description) followed by "Where/when" (a brief note about where/when the object was found) and then "Why? Discuss!"
The idea is to talk about what these bits of culture mean, how we feel about those meanings, what kinds of competing messages are out there, and so on.
Below is the first in the Sex Symbols series.
What: Tank top shows a trophy cup with the words "Lifetime Achievement Award" on it. Around the trophy are the words "Walk of Shame Hall of Fame" and inside the cup are the words "Lifetime achievement award"
Where/when: This tank top was found and photographed at the Greenport Maritime Festival on the east end of Long Island's north fork. It was in a stall that contained lots of t-shirts with sayings on them. There was a rack that held only kids shirts, and many had sayings like "My mom is hot" or "My grandma is hot" or "My daddy rocks".
...because public space really matters!
Elizabeth
This shirt puzzled me right away. In fact, I walked past the vendor's stall a second time to get a picture of it. That's what made me think about starting this feature.
So, here are some of the things I wondered:
Does this represent a "reclaiming" of the slut label? Is this something a woman would pick out for herself or would it be given to her as a joke?
This was printed only on women's tank tops and not on men's shirts. Is there a "walk of shame" for men? Wikipedia's "walk of shame entry suggests that for men the walk has to do with the desirability of the partner where for women it has to do with having had a one-night stand or hookup. (By the way, the Wikipedia entry needs work. If you know a lot about the idea of the "walk of shame" please help them out!) Does this shirt represent a reinforcement of the double standard around sexual freedom for men and women or is it an attempt to challenge that double standard?
Just some questions to start the discussion.
What do you make of this shirt and its message?
...because public space really matters!
Elizabeth
...and proud of it? Or just want the nearby men to know?
Basically, I think the shirt is a subtle and clever way to tell the world "I'm a slut." Which could be a critique of our society's double standard regarding gender and sexual freedom. And it could be a way to let all the men in the vicinity know you're an easy mark. When I see such t-shirts on women, I tend to assume the latter. Mainly because I usually see them on inebriated females, hanging onto the nearest man for support.
Such women are challenging the norms in their behavior if not in their ideals. If we wanted to challenge the double standard, we would not look down on these women for their sluttiness. Rampant casual sex would be simply another loved behavior, like rampant casual eating of the potato chips.
The kind of person I usually see wearing a shirt like this (though I haven't seen this exact one) is a very young woman, often a teenager, who wears it as an act of rebellion against parental and/or social strictures that are keeping them from expressing themselves as a sexual being. At least that's how I would like to read it. It does worry me, however, as a symbol of such, as it often is paired with naiveté and careless behavior.
I find the phrase particularly problematic as someone who is enjoying reclaiming the word "slut," but have no desire to claim the word "shame." I'd rather reclaim the "walk of shame" as a "walk of whoo-eeee I had great sex and I'm still glowing from it," or something like that.
