Just overheard a brief snippet of conversation between two young boys

[homegirl]

34. There is hope, see my grandaughter's theater review

Slut the Play
by with love and squalor

There was never any doubt in my mind that theater can bring ideas center stage and open your eyes to issues, but I hadn’t experienced that in a while, until I saw Slut the Play. As a high school senior, one of my English courses I am taking is Feminism, which looks at issues of gender equality through an intersectional lens. Last Monday we took a trip to Bond Street to watch Slut the Play, performed by the Arts Effect, an all girls theater group based in Manhattan. Slut the Play, is controversial, but more importantly, it’s eye opening. The play takes place in New York City, and tell the story of Joey Del Marco, a sixteen year old girl who is sexually assaulted by three boys she thinks of as friends. Joey, played by Winnifred Bonjean-Alpart, experiences a Hester Prynne like form of ostracism as she is labeled a slut and a liar, after going to the police following her assault. Joey tells her story to the police (and the audience) with slight interruption for short monologues of other characters, including the girls of the self titled “Slut Squad.” Slut the Play, isn’t a sad play with a happy ending, but rather a gritty and realistic look at the ever growing issue of sexual assault in High Schools. As a young woman I am not unaware of this issue, we occasionally discuss it in school and have looked at it thoroughly in my feminism class. Sitting in the audience I thought to myself, I am glad I am seeing this play, but more people need to. And those people are young men, and parents, those who can lend a helping hand to girls if they need it, and support them in any way they need. Slut also highlights an issue that I think has become most prevalent in high schools: slut shaming. Blaming girls for sexual assault because of how they dress, or simply holding judgment against someone because of how they wish to express themselves through their clothes or their actions. Slut the Play tackles this issue in a raw way that sticks to reality, which makes it all the more influential. Slut the Play is not just a play, its more than a performance, in fact, it’s a crusade, an educational journey that has already taken a trip across the country in order to further inform schools about slut shaming and sexual assault, it’s a movement, and its happening now.