The South Orange-Maplewood Adult School will host “StopSlut!,” an event featuring activists Katie Cappiello, Meg McInerney and Jennifer Baumgardner who will discuss “slut shaming” and using theater to build a movement.
“Slut shaming is degrading women and girls’ sexuality and then using it to justify harassment and rape,” said Baumgardner in an email. “Every woman and girl owes it to herself to rebel against that word.”
Featuring performers from “Slut: The Play” and excerpts from the book “SLUT: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence” (Feminist Press), the StopSlut! event is Thursday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Columbia High School Black Box Theatre, Maplewood.
Tickets are $15 for adults; $5 for students with valid ID. Register online at www.somadultschool.org or call 973.378.7620. There will be a book signing after the event.
Gloria Steinem said, “‘SLUT’ is truthful, raw, and immediate. Experience this play and witness what American young women live with everyday.” The play was featured in February’s Vanity Fair and was recently written up in MTV News (read interview here).
The goal of the StopSlut! movement is to inspire young people to create small, strategic changes in their communities that will lead to a cultural shift. The movement grew out of the intense response to SLUT: The Play, written by Cappiello. It was inspired by the real experiences of high school students and developed over two years with teenage actors in weekly creative sessions led by The Arts Effect.
Here is more information from the press release:
The play follows the journey of 16-year-old Joanna Del Marco who is raped by three friends during a night out in NYC, and highlights the damaging impact of slut culture on the lives of young people and the importance of being heard.
StopSlut uses this powerful play to ignite social change. The movement supports a youth-initiated response to slut shaming and sexual assault, addresses the inaction of bystanders and emphasizes the responsibility we all share in perpetuating misogyny through our language, actions and inactions.
StopSlut has grown into a nationwide coalition of students using tools—a book, a play, and workshops—to develop unique activism projects for their communities.
StopSlut originated in fall of 2013, when 108 girls from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and New Jersey came together as the founding members. Since then, these young women and men from NYC, Fargo, ND, Moorhead, MN, and Los Angeles, CA have worked to end sexual shaming, harassment, and violence by cultivating healthier attitudes toward female sexuality.
