The Storm Project

I had an entirely different topic planned for today, but this crossed my mind late last night. Mica and his close friend Ingrid were discussing D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (which I haven’t read yet) and the fact that it was so sexually scandalous at its publishing in 1915 that thousands of copies were destroyed. Looking back now, Mica and Ingrid expressed amusement that today novels meant for teens and even “tweens” are rife with sexual content, sexual coming of age stories and experimentation. The Rainbow was seen as too explicit for adults in the public only a few decades ago…and now six-year-old girls are watching the last 2 Twilight movies, sex scenes and all. The difference is striking, and fascinating, and I wanted to touch on a bit of that.

In an age where society demands sex appeal yet hypocritically complains about young women reaching/exploring/experimenting with their sexual maturity, the line between being perceived as sexually empowered and perceived as “slutty” is very, very thin. So what is the difference between sexual empowerment and sluttiness?

Georgie Henley (aka Lucy Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia movies) just turned 18. She was 9 with the release of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 2005 and 14 with the release of Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010. She’s probably my favourite teen actress. She’s just so darn cute, plus I love the way she plays Lucy, my favourite Narnian character. She’s a few months older than I am.

Take a look at these pictures:*

Like I said, I love Georgie. I love that she is still modest for a relatively famous child-star-turned-woman. She is beautiful without being “hot.” She can still tap into that (see pictures above), but when you think of Georgie, you think of her as beautiful, adorable, and endearing. She isn’t perfect, but she can be gorgeous just the same. She can be desirable, which is what most teens want to be, but I think because of her modesty and innocence (in terms of the celebrity world, at least) she still has a great reputation.

Now, someone like Emma Watson (aka Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies) has a little more stigma to her name. The 23-year-old has taken that step into the sexed-up aspect of her career, which some Harry Potter fans don’t necessarily like. It’s good for her, though, landing roles in movies like The Bling Ring. Unlike Georgie, Emma has the image of “sexy” attached to her name, due to photoshoots and cover shoots and whatnot.

Take a look at these:

Now, to us, we can admire Emma and Georgie for taking these poses, for being in control of their sensuality, for embracing the idea that a woman can be in control, that she can say no, that she can initiate, that she can be more than one dimension.

And yet, if there’s a girl at school who takes a provocative photo like Emma or Georgie did, she is instantly labelled slut, whore, floozy, attention-grabber, desperate. It gets attention, but not good attention.

The disparity of this fascinates me. We can look at sexualized famous people and admire them, but if a “normal” person shows off their sexual confidence to the public (usually via Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc) it’s shameful and ought to be ridiculed.

So, the line between being sexually empowered and labelled slutty?

I really don’t know. I try to look at it objectively. Young women like Georgie, Emma, Miley Cyrus, and Dakota Fanning are celebrities. They live and breathe and eat and sleep in an atmosphere that demands sex appeal for success. They do photoshoots that might involve being topless or in a provocative position. It comes with their trade.

Us normal young women, we have this, too, but not to this extreme. We’re supposed to be desirable, pretty, yet modest. (I detect a hint of Victorian moral behind all this). No topless photos for us unless we want to sign our societal death warrants! Girls who post pictures of themselves in their bikinis often get comments or remarks that scorn that decision, while others silently applaud them for the confidence they have in their body.

And then we have history to add into this mix. Some of the most famous sculptures and paintings of all time are of nude or partially nude women and men. Were they scandalous then? Yes. Are they scandalous now? Some people think so. Are they art? Yes. Are they put on public display? Yes. Are they beautiful? Definitely yes. Speaking in a broad sense, nudity and the sexual empowerment of the subject in art is inevitable and almost expected by today’s audience.

I’m not telling you to run off and pretend to be Michelangelo’s David! Please, don’t. That’s not what I’m saying. That’s not advisable. I’m just saying that art has always found a place for a sexually empowered subject and relished in it.

Miley Cyrus caused a stir with this photo, taken when she was 15. Highly criticized for its inappropriateness, I don’t see anything wrong with it if it made her happier about herself.

Photography is an art, as well, and I try looking at photos that some might consider risque or inappropriate as an artful form of expression. The human body is beautiful, and I don’t really see anything wrong with a girl taking a semi-nude photo in an artful manner. If she does it as a cry for help, a tasteless bathroom selfie perhaps, then I see things a bit differently, but I’m not ashamed to say that topless photos of me exist. It was an art project. And I’m very proud of those photos. While I was, technically, topless, it was dwelling in the art of the human body while still being physically modest.

I guess for me the line between being sexually empowered and presenting yourself in a way that is ultimately detrimental to your reputation (aka “slutty”) is in the way that it’s put forward. Tasteful, artful photos that may or may not include some nudity while still maintaining self-respect are 100% fine in my opinion, and if you don’t plaster yourself all over the Internet. I pat you on the back. It could provide you with a greater sense of confidence in your body, how you see yourself — and sexual empowerment.

I also openly admit to contradicting myself when I say that modesty is one of the most attractive traits there is. Modesty is beautiful. Physical self-confidence is beautiful. You can draw the line wherever you feel most comfortable.

There will always be negative reactions to photos (and other mediums of art) with any degree of sex appeal or  nudity, especially if you aren’t a celebrity and you’re a young person. Your family, especially elder members, might be quite scandalized, chastise you for it, and see you in a different way that might not be a good thing. It’s up to you. It doesn’t really matter what other people think, even though reputation is important in our world. But a piece of art, a process that increased your self-confidence?

The choice is yours.

And those are some of my thoughts on it.

*No copy right infringement was intended with the use of the photos in this post.