SEX: Hypersexualization in Human Society
Artist Statement
Karyn Attipoe
December, 2015

For most people, hearing someone they consider a child talk so frankly about sex makes them uncomfortable. They think they’re too young to be thinking about things like that, sex is for adults. But in the same breath they tell kids not to show too much skin because someone could get the wrong idea. Everything is simultaneously about sex, and not about sex. It’s saturated in our culture, but we’re not supposed to talk about it. Magazines inform us of who is having sex with whom, while parents tell us don’t have sex until we’re old enough.

Hypersexualization takes many forms, some of them more obvious than others. In race it dictates who we think is sexually aggressive, who is passive, and whose sexual appetites are primitive. These assumptions began to take root as a child makes the transition to adult, and begins to experiment with themselves and their desires.

In order to show this development in a way that is tasteful and makes the audience comfortable, we felt that performance art was a fitting art form for our topic. We created this story about four teens that are pulled into conflict because these assumptions, and using our experience in multiple art forms we created a moving piece that makes the audience stop and think. Charlie, McKaelah, Benji, and Wyatt share their stories through monologues, each one expressing their feelings ( or lack of ) for each other. Because it is performance art the movements accompanying each monologue are a hybrid between dance, and pedestrian movements, with careful pauses scattered throughout to maintain the audience's focus on the story. In between each monologue the dancing reflects the story that came before it. Specific movements we have attached to words or phrases to show the similarities or hypocrisy going on in the story.

While our message is for all ages, it is important that teens and parents hear it, because teens are going through it, and parents are the ones ushering their kids into adulthood. If they hear this conversation in a specific context where they can recognize the negative effects of slut shaming and racism. Then when they have interactions like the ones in our performance they will recognize what they’re doing as toxic and hopefully change the way they view others. Because, as we know, the first step to fixing a problem is recognizing there is a problem.