Students Unite to Combat Stereotypical Labeling of Women’s Bodies and Sexuality
By Claudia Liburd
Trinidad Reporter - SKNVibes.com
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(Port-of-Spain) --- Students of the University of the West Indies (UWI) converged on Friday to combat the prevalent association of violent terminology with women’s bodies and sexuality.
The popular action named ‘Labeling of Bodies’ was held under the theme ‘Eliminating the Negative Stereotypes Associated with Female Bodies and Sexuality’ in the Humanities and Education Undercroft of the UWI campus.
The demonstration consisted of various interactive activities one of the most striking of which was a life-sized human cutout where persons were invited to label the erogenous zones of the human bodies with local colloquialisms.
After identifying the stereotypes persons were further invited to throw them into a black bin in an effort to eliminate derogatory terms which suggest violence against women such as ‘mashing up the p*****y', ‘bust up the p#ssy’, ‘hittin it’, tappin dat’, etc.
The promotion was very successful and according to one of the coordinators of the event, Ms. Rowanta Dalrymple it was well received by the general public.
She noted, “While many argued that such terms do not always signify or signal violence against women, we emphasized the importance of language in the formation of values. By using such terminology one subconsciously reinforces a general attitude of condescension towards femininity.
“The demonstration went very well and as a group we were quite delighted by the enthusiastic public response. We endeavored to make it attention grabbing and thought provoking in an effort to effectively create awareness in terms of gender-equity and fairness”
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