I generally try to use as little profanity as I can, but for the sake of this article I feel it’s necessary to mention a few swear words. If anyone gets offended by some of the words I use, I’m sorry. Please excuse me for my language. And if you haven’t seen Easy A, this will include some spoilers, so you might want to watch Easy A before continuing.
As you can probably tell in some of my articles, I am very interested in feminist issues, and I am interested in the approaches that writers take in writing female characters and in discussing feminism. Easy A brought up a subject that I’ve been interested in a while: the subject of slut-shaming. Slut-shaming means making a woman feel guilty or inferior for having strong sexual desires, having sex a lot or with more than one partner, or dressing up sexually provocative or with revealing clothing. Calling them sluts, skanks, tramp, dirty whores, hookers, trash, even prostitutes.
Olive (played by Emma Stone) is an average high schooler who indirectly starts a rumour of sleeping with a college student (a person she made-up) and losing her virginity with him, when in reality she’s still a virgin. The lie spreads immediately around the school and is then labelled as “the high school slut”. She decides to take on the persona, wearing more revealing outfits, putting on a big red letter “A” on her clothes (like in The Scarlett Letter), and pretending to sleep with below-average guys so that they get benefited. But soon the rumour starts to get out of hand and her reputation gets from bad to much worse.
As a high school comedy film, it was a lot of fun to watch. It’s interesting to see how films like these present such serious issues in a fun tone (when done right). I like it when films do that. One of these issues, slut shaming, is something I’d like to talk about now. In a feminist perspective, the film directly explores slut shaming, especially in a high school context. Although Olive’s a teenager, it’s established that she has a very critical viewpoint. We watch the film in her viewpoint and explore her views on high school culture.
It’s amazing how contradictory people can be about having sex. Most of us at a young age were told not to have sex until marriage. If they want to wait until marriage, it’s most likely an act of devotion to your partner, or maybe a way of saying you aren’t ready yet. Either way, that’s fine. Once, I talked to some of my friends about abstinence. One of them responded, “NO! We HAVE to have sex before marriage! Are they crazy? My MOM agrees with me! It’s like the best thing ever!” But she isn’t wrong either. If you want to have sex before marriage, that’s entirely fine too. It’s their way of expressing their sexuality. But people have to be cautious as well. Not just with the possibility of accidentally having a child, but also getting diseases and infections. You should only have sex when you really feel you’re ready for it.
People often become judgemental over having sex before marriage, or losing their virginity at a young age, not just because of abstinence, but because some believe this is an act of naivety. If you’re having sex at, say, 16, then you’re foolish. They think these kids might not understand the concept of love; that they should only have sex until they’re old enough to understand it. Also, with too much sex people have higher risks of sexually transmitted diseases, and in this respect this will be an act of making themselves dirty. In this film, a Christian group probably sees this as an act of impurity (physically and spiritually), and it connects to the reasons I just mentioned (although please correct me if I’m wrong).
With that said, let’s look at something for a moment. When guys have lots of sex with several girls, they’re considered MACHO! BUTCH! But when women have sex with several guys, they’re considered… sluts? If a guy loses his virginity in high school, it’s ok because he’s now a man (as seen in a few examples in the film). But a girl loses her virginity and she’s a slut. Once Olive’s rumour spreads, she’s immediately a slut. Firstly, why in heck does all this measure your reputation? It doesn’t. Like Olive said, why can’t a guy just invite a girl on a date instead of begging them for sex? When that guy invites Olive for a date, he only invited her so that he could have sex with her. Even if he didn’t know that the girl had sexual drives (or pretending to be, in Olive’s case), that is just a mean and selfish thing to do. Secondly, why do WOMEN get shunned for this action and not men? Society believes that women in particular should act on a certain level of behaviour, and men usually get a free pass. I’m not saying that all men are trying to downgrade women. That may be true in historical terms, but by this point in our society it’s become the norm to tell women how they should act; tell them to follow a mode of behaviour.
Going back to the film, another interesting aspect is that in the beginning of the film, Olive was just an unnoticed and average high schooler. No reputation or title, no nothing. It’s only after the rumour that people started paid more attention to her. So basically if a woman doesn’t have sex, she’s a goody good girl, but average and/or a loser. If she does have sex, she pretty and gets more guys, but she’s a slut. As quoted by a female YouTuber talking about the issue: “How are we meant to express our sexuality in a healthy way? There’s no alternative. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”
Just because women wear little clothing doesn’t mean that they’re trying to ask for sex (although they should be careful with the way they dress as well. It’s a bit complicated). As for abstinent women, if a woman wants to have sex before marriage, that’s fine. But that doesn’t define whether you’re a good woman or pure or a saint-like figure. Just imagine something stupid like this: “She robbed a bank and sold drugs on the street. We’re letting her go. She’s abstinent.” Abstinence should be if they feel that they aren’t ready, or if they want to devote themselves to their future partner. This is NOT an act of kindness to the community! In the end, society can be very hypocritical with the idea of the “proper lady”.
Women should have the chance to express their sexuality in some way. Pleasure from intercourse isn’t a bad thing. It’s a very human and natural action. Having sex properly might actually help a woman’s self-esteem: they’ll feel more beautiful and outgoing. They shouldn’t sell their bodies, but they should be free to have sex whenever and with whomever they want to, and only if they want to. Going back to the example of the guy who invited Olive on a date just so that he could sleep with her: just because a girl is promiscuous doesn’t mean that the man has the right to her body.
By the end of the film, Olive concludes her live blog with Todd and the possibility with losing her virginity with him: “But the really amazing thing is it is nobody’s God damn business.” EXACTLY. THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT. The film isn’t trying to say being a slut or prostitute is good at all. The thing is that people shouldn’t be overly judgmental over anyone’s actions. We’re not going to try to monitor their every behaviour. I thought it was a nice touch in the film when the teacher said something like, “Why should people mention their every action on Facebook?” If what you write on Facebook doesn’t matter, why should anybody else’s business matter? Rhiannon, Olive’s best friend, stops being her friend after Olive takes on the persona. After much hating and criticising, Rhiannon realises she’s wrong. Not because Olive didn’t have sex, but because she shouldn’t have over-criticised her in the first place. It shouldn’t have mattered at all.
I hope people will be a bit more aware of the issue after watching Easy A, whether they like the film or not. It’s not a perfect movie, but it is very entertaining and does present an interesting feminist issue with a high school social commentary. A good movie all-in-all. Final thoughts: slut-shaming is not cool.
