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Coming as a shock to nobody, the slut-shamers are still as active and abusive offline as they are online, especially when it comes to Kim Kardashian and her penchant for full body selfie-taking. Down in Melbourne, a known controversial artist who likes to keep his art in the here and now with topical, pop cultural references, took liberty with a vacant wall on a particular alleyway, where he would paint his 30-foot tall interpretation (we say interpretation, but it was pretty spot on with Kim’s original selfie) of the Kim Kardashian photo that we’re STILL talking about. If her intention was to incite a public discourse about the freedom to express one’s sexuality and femininity however they may please, she’s absolutely achieved that. We’ve certainly been inspired to stop and think before jumping automatically to the kind of judgemental thought patterns we’ve long been conditioned to follow. Sure, it might not be how you would express your femininity or feminism, and it might cause your great grand parents to turn violently in their graves, but that doesn’t mean she’s doing something wrong. It’s her body, her choice. Does that warrant a barrage of slut-shaming? Does sharing imagery like this mean she is, as Irish writer Louise O’Neill would put it, ‘asking or it?’ No, there’s never a place for it; it’s never okay.
It wasn’t long before the mural of Kim was branded with a big fat ‘slut’ across the hip. Original. Here you’ve got graffiti vandalism on top of what’s still considered vandalism (his mural) and suddenly, unbeknownst to he or she who was so offended by the mural, it’s transformed into a real life commentary on the experience of countless women online every day.
Speaking to Buzzed, here is what the artist Lush Sux had to say, after his mural had been added to within 48 hours of him painting it: “It was a given, considering the subject matter. I’m bummed that people didn’t get more of a chance to interact with it and that someone felt the dire need to spray ‘slut’ across it.”
Indeed, it was a ‘given’, but that’s the point; it shouldn’t be.
Follow the artist here for more conversation-starting work.