The slut, the spinster and the perfect woman | Martha Mosse | TEDxCoventGardenWomen

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

In this talk, Martha Mosse an award-winning performance and visual artist brought up in England and France, talks about her work and the labels of Slut, Spinster and Perfect.

Her movement-based works are skilful and thought-provoking investigations of liberty and constraint. Her installations involve performance behind and within spandex structures, designed to allow but also limit movement. Her malleable 'prisons' are both restrictive and the medium for the performer's expression.

Good morning!

My name is Martha Mosse.

I'm a feminist performance artist.

My work is about control and oppression,

but also about breaking
the boundaries of our prisons.

In particular, the indefensible
prisons of our bodies.

Looking back, I realize
I've always been a feminist.

I just hadn't labeled it yet.

My first realization of gender
inequality was when I was 18.

I was travelling
through the desert in Dubai

with my parents and brother.

We were going to a literary festival.

I fell into a conversation

with a highly-respected
female war correspondent,

who started telling me a story

about several years earlier when visiting
a traditional household in Afghanistan.

Upon arrival, she was told
to go into the kitchen

and help the women cook dinner,

while her two male
junior film crew members

were invited to relax with the men
in the main room.

After hours of cooking,
preparing a huge feast,

the women pushed the platters
beneath the beaded curtain

that separated
the kitchen from the living room,

the women from the men.

After the men had finished eating,

they pushed the trays back
beneath the curtain,

and it was only then that the women
were allowed to eat what remained.

I cried when I heard that story.

I cried, because I realized suddenly

how pointlessly unfair and limiting
the world can be.

I also cried because I was acutely aware
that this was now it:

that once you have recognized
gender inequality

and the need for feminism,

you can't unsee it.

I began identifying myself as a feminist

in my second year at university
when writing my dissertation.

The essay was an analysis of the labels
'slut', 'spinster', and 'perfect'.

For it, I read many of the great classic
and contemporary feminist texts:

The Second Sex, The Female Eunuch,

The Beauty Myth, Living Dolls.

(Laughter)

It was through reading these books
and thinking these thoughts

that I suddenly began to feel braver.

I felt more able to voice my opinions,

and I felt in good company.

It was also through doing this research

that I started to develop
my current performance art practice.

I recognized the danger in certain labels,

and I wanted to explore
and highlight this danger

in relatively neutral environments.

As most people are unaware
of what performance art actually is,

it exists outside of a label.

So, my work analyzes the danger
of these three specific labels.

And they are the reason
why I will always label myself a feminist.

I'll start with 'perfect'.

Perfection masquerades as a compliment.

It poses as an achievable idea,
but it is a lie to aspire to.

So much of both the historical
and contemporary economy

has relied upon the ideal.

The fashion and beauty industries
flaunt falsified examples

of the perfect skin, eyes,
lips, hair, bum, nails, tan;

none of which any woman has,
but all of which, apparently, we need.

(Laughter)

The health and fitness industry

relies upon women and men
being dissatisfied with how they look.

So they develop workouts
that claim to get you the perfect body.

But what is a perfect body?

I contend that perfection is subjective.

It's different for everybody.

So how can total physical
perfection be possible?

It can't be, right?

The danger with advertising
an impossible ideal as achievable

is that it only encourages and makes
women and men feel like failures.

But even if you are lucky enough
to have been born with the genes

that can even begin to approach
the physical ideals of perfection,

the next hurdle for you to overcome
is the threat of remaining unmarried.

So, my next label is spinster.

For a woman, as she ages,
it is thought that she is decaying.

Her body clock is ticking,

and as her looks fade,

apparently, her purpose, her possibility
of finding happiness is lost.

The man equivalent
of a spinster, a bachelor,

is depicted as enjoying a party lifestyle
and high-rise appartments.

He can perfect his now swarf
and silver-fox-looks

with expensive beauty products
and charm women half his age.

A spinster is pitied.

She is condemned to sit alone
surrounded by cats,

mourning the loss of her youth.

(Laughter)

No matter how happy or successful she is,
Hollywood superstar Jennifer Aniston

is continually portrayed
by the world's media as sad or failed

because she hasn't yet had a baby.

The intention is that if a woman
hasn't married or have children,

then she has failed at being a woman.

To be 'left on the shelf',
as the phrase goes, is often assumed

that a woman must have done
something wrong in her younger life,

or that she must be wrong.

There must be a reason for that.

Perhaps, she was a slut.

The slut is an overly promiscuous woman

who fails to fit into society's narrow
parameters of 'sexy', but not 'too sexy'.

(Laughter)

Judging by media representations,
women should dress elegantly,

show some skin,
wear red lipstick, don't work.

Mainstream pornography,
which is widespread,

is continually bombarded
with sexual scenarios

where the woman has sex

even if she doesn't want to
or isn't ready.

The soft and hardcore porn industries

advertise sex as so immediate
and so unintimate,

that younger generations of boys and girls

are starting to think
that that is how it is done.

Yet, despite these oversexualized
images of women in porn,

in lux mags, in music videos,
in a national newspaper,

when a woman follows
this example in real life,

she's mocked, criticized,
verbally, or even physically, abused.

Once again, she fails.

And the failure is her fault.

According to an Amnesty survey,

one in three people
blame a woman for being raped.

They ask if she was drunk,
if her skirt was too short,

if she was too flirty,

as if any of this means

that she loses the right
to the control over her own body.

SlutWalks, a kind of performance art,
are trying to reclaim the word,

but it remains part of the backlash
against female sexual liberation

and the control that it gave women.

The word 'slut' segregates women from men.

It segregates women from women.

It dehumanizes and objectifies us all.

The labels 'slut', 'spinster',
and 'perfect' are commonplace.

They offend, limit, and intimidate women.

They take away the power
and pass along the control.

The blatant sexist messages
contained in each are so ingrained

that most people, I hope,

are unaware of the hurt, fear,
and isolation that they breed.

They keep women caged.

They keep the status quo.

It's because of labels like these

that I find it so vitally important
for women and men

to identify themselves as feminists.

Neither of my parents ever conformed
to traditional gender roles.

They both brought my brother and I up.
They both worked.

So, my brother and I grew up
in an unlabeled house.

I currently own two power drills.

(Laughter)

I built my first piece
of flat-pack furniture when I was six.

And I still use these skills
in my performance art practice today.

My favorite room in the house
is the kitchen.

When we allow labels to limit us,

then men and women, boys and girls
fail to achieve their true potential.

But sometimes, asserting an identity

can encourage us to be who we wish,
act as we want to be.

In my case, an artist.

A performance artist.

Feminism is not a reductive label.

Do not let a hostile media persuade you

that we cannot be feminists
or that we should not be feminists.

It's not a reductive label.

It is an invitation, a celebration,
an opportunity.

It has encouraged men and women
from across the world

to be braver, louder, more independent.

It has forced

enormous financial, political,
human rights, and social change.

Feminism is about fairness
and equality of opportunity for all.

So aren't we all feminists?

I'm Martha Mosse.

I'm a feminist performance artist.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)