Once a Slag...

A TikTok soundbite, “Once a slag, always a slag,” blares out of my daughter’s phone as she shows me a video of herself and a friend performing for the camera. They reenact the gendered scripts they’ve unconsciously inherited, and I reflect the discrepancy between how girls perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. I am exhausted by the relentless contradiction’s society imposes on women and girls. Appearing desirable and beautiful is framed as a source of power and validation, yet the same desires render us vulnerable to shame, victim-blaming, and a demand for restraint. We are expected to embody an impossible duality – both Madonna and whore all at once, to be chaste and pure yet sexy and wild. This multi-layered photographic series examines the complexities of girlhood within a Western, smartphone generation. It explores the tensions between the freedom of childhood wonders and teenage defiance, juxtaposed with the persistent oppression of misogyny that unfolds both in physical and digital spaces.