SLUT: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence

by Katie Cappiello (Editor), Meg McInerney (Editor), Jennifer Baumgardner (Preface)

The basis of the forthcoming NETFLIX series Grand Army . Hailed by Gloria Steinem as “truthful, raw, and immediate,” SLUT examines sexual violence and rape culture through the eyes of high school students at a New York City high school.
"She's such a slut." Sound familiar?

When a sixteen-year-old Joey is sexually assaulted by three friends, her life is thrown into upheaval after she comes forward and realizes the extent of society’s deeply-rooted sexual double standards and rape culture. By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, the play SLUT captures the real lives of teens and young adults as they negotiate sex and the cruel scapegoating that still hobbles female sexuality and power.

This groundbreaking play and guidebook, written in collaboration with New York City high school students, offers communities and individuals concrete tools to inspire change and disrupt rape culture. SLUT includes production notes, a guide for talk-backs, and provocative essays by Leora Tanenbaum, Jennifer Baumgardner, Farah Tanis, Jamia Wilson, among others, providing the resources to inspire change within our communities and ourselves.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Plays, Sexuality, Gender Studies, Gender

248 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2015

Reviews

[Book Riot Community]

This book needs to be required reading in every high school across the country. If there was some way to ensure that every adult read and discussed it as well, then I would add it to that list, too. I want you to pop over to YouTube and watch the Talks at Google video that features a scene from the play and a discussion from many of the women and teens who are responsible for its creation. This book will break your heart and make you imminently hopeful all at the same time, because keeping “slut” in our collective lexicon is only fueling rape culture. And, yes, it’s an incredibly loaded and uncomfortable conversation to have, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary. I have already mailed copies to family and friends and have placed it on display everywhere in the bookstore where I work. I’ll shut up about this one as soon as it stops being relevant, which won’t happen as soon as we all would like, I’m sure. — Brandi Bailey


from The Best Books We Read In March: http://bookriot.com/2015/04/01/riot-r...

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out Bookish Antics for reviews, giveaways and interviews!
One would think that in the year 2015 that gender equality wouldn’t be such a far-fetched idea and yet, the word ‘slut’ is tossed around like it means nothing. SLUT is a difficult book to read: I had to stop several times because it was all too much to handle. This book is hard to stomach, but it’s easily one of the most important works I’ve ever read and it’s something that demands to be read and discussed. I can’t say that SLUT is an easy read, but it is a must read for everyone and anyone. I’ve decided to discuss this book’s sections separately to make things easier.

NYC Students Talk Gender Inequality

The first section consists of submissions from NYC students who had viewed performances of SLUT and sent in their reactions. Of all the sections of this book that were the hardest to read, it was definitely this one by far. Each mini essay was so real, heartbreaking and thought-provoking; raising questions about society’s gender roles and conventions. I really was happy to see that there were submissions from both male and female feminists who are fed up with sexism and there is an eclectic variety of stories for readers. While most of the story deal with females dealing with sexism, this collection doesn’t hesitate to discuss discrimination towards GLBTQ+ individuals and males. There is no topic that is shied from in this part and I applaud these students for being so honest and not holding back.

The Play

SLUT is so simple and yet so powerful, transporting viewers to high-school and exposing them to all too familiar strains of sexism. In so few pages, the play manages to convey such important themes and carries so much weight, hitting readers with an avalanche of emotions. We all know characters like the ones in the play; they are our sisters, our classmates, our friends, our family and they’ve been turned into sluts by society. They deserve to have their stories told and this play could very well help the word slut fall out of usage. SLUT is bold and fearless; this play deserves to have a long life on and off the stage. I think we all need to have our eyes opened by this play, regardless of our gender because awareness is the first step to making change.

The Essays / Guidebook

The final portion of this book is a call to action to try to ensure that in the future others don’t have to deal with any form of sexual discrimination. Many of the essays were incredibly intriguing and I liked seeing a broader picture of the issues raised through this piece. I found many of the suggestions in the guidebook to be great suggestions and I hope to put them into practice soon. I definitely think this is a great piece to be taught in schools and the educator’s guide is truly spectacular and is extremely in-depth.

Overall

SLUT is an extremely informative book that will both captivate and horrify readers with its depiction of rape culture.

[Anthony McGaffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an important book that covers such a delicate yet vast and rigid topic. Personally, I wish I would’ve been able to read this in middle school. This needs to be required reading in schools! Caution this might have trigger warnings but should be read by every person.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Hopeful.
This book. Does so many things, speaks to and with so many voices about slut shaming and rape culture in the US. The play was pretty incredible too.
This book begins with short stories/thoughts/experience written BY young people and it really sets the stage for the incorporation of most important people in this conversation, young humans.

Please read.

[Agus Piazza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primero vi la serie grand army y ahi me enteré que estaba basada en esta obra y esta obra es tan geniall

[Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so I read this book so long ago. But yet it has left such an impact on me. Which mean a lot.

If you are looking for a book where people tell their story about abuse this is it. It’s is as painfully awful to read it as it is interesting. The courage of those people who tell their stories is unbelievable. I am recommending this book to everyone.

The slut play is also incredible. It show you just as much as the testimonies how bad our society is when it come to dealing with rape culture or sexual assault. This play is to me a must read.

I also appreciate everything you learn with it. How you can own up to the word slut but not only that but how easy it is to slut shame. This book teach me (as it was the first feminist book I ever read) to put every situations into perspective that slut shaming is never ok (obviously) and therefore to NEVER let someone slut shame another.

So yes I know I haven’t gotten into too much details about the book but please read it, if you are looking for a first good book to start your feminist study THAT IS IT. This one is not too complicated and the vocabulary isnt too complexe literally anyone can read it (if English isn’t your first language -like me- this book is perfect for you).

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the play as well as some of the essays were excellent. I particularly thought the essay about the inclusion of black women was really important and illuminating. But for the most part, I didn't see this book as anything all that different from other feminist titles I've read.

[Deeantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

referenced a part of this book for a uni essay and it impressed my lecturer 😌

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, we should acknowledge that I am not the target audience for this play/these essays. None of this was new information for me. But that being said, I can see the play and some of the writings as good teaching skills for middle/high schoolers.

Throughout reading, I was trying to look at the information and how it was presented as if I was back in school. I’m not sure if an educational play would have been the best medium for me... but that’s maybe a personal thing. I think any play meant to teach kids would lead to secondhand embarrassment and cringe city for me. I could very explicitly see my teen self reading and taking away new things from the essays though if a teacher assigned them for class.

I think teens these days are more ‘woke’ and educated on social topics like rape and slut-shaming. So would this be anything new for them? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. And the kids who aren’t interested in social issues probably aren’t going to be interested in this at all. It’s a catch 22. But I’m glad this exists and if it reaches and educates kids young enough I’d imagine it would make a difference.

TLDR: I graduated high school around 6 years ago, so while still pretty close to its intended age, I can’t completely put myself into those shoes anymore. I liked this enough as a 23 year old and can see the educational merit, but ultimately this isn’t for me and can’t really deem its success.

[Lilamedusa · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the title, I thought this would be some light take on slut culture and how it's bad, actually.

And it is that, only that it is so much more.

It revolves around SLUT, the play, and the many ways in which it has been used for activism, it talks about Slut from different angles and offers clear pathways to action.

It's one of those books that I wish were obligatory on HS (and before)

[Christina Geaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I think that everyone should read from 14 years and up. It has stories that are very important around consent and what that means, slut shaming and the impact our language and actions have on others. Would absolutely have loved to see the play, would highly recommend watching 'Grand Army' on Netflix which is based on this play.

[Astrid Vander Cruyssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Slut is the big way of dividing women from women. Women are a majority of the population in every generation. In a true democracy, women have power. But this power depends on having a voice of our own, meaning a voice that is legitimately connected to the reality of what has happened to us."

[Felicity Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great great great! I’d highly recommend getting and reading the edition that includes the guidebook with the play. Such a powerful read.

[Danielle Muise · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Inês Costa Louro · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: cathartic. Please read it.

[ibuproffie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i watched "grand army" recently, which is very good and everyone should see, so i wanted to read the book it was based off of for *context*.....and i was pretty much Wrecked.

[Jonathon Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an intense and difficult book to read. Not so much difficult in the emotional sense, though there was plenty of pathos. But difficult in the sense that it is a book, and play, that truly forces introspection. At risk of sounding cliche, it resulted in some interesting revelations. Not life changing ones perhaps, but startling ones.


This play and it's associated essays doesn't add a great deal to feminist literature as far as new ideas go. In fact, I think part of it's power is that all of the concepts in this work, be they inequality or being an active bystander or addressing the double standard of sexuality between men and women are I think concepts that are easily recognisable for anyone who thinks about them.
However, we don't, and even when we do we instinctively skitter away from their discussion. At multiple points I was forced to confront my own scepticism and rationalisings. For instance, I had finished the play and been forced to think about sexual and slut shaming culture within a high school environment.
However, when I then read an essay about sexual violence in a global society, and read about female genital mutilation and honour killing and child marriage, I instinctively found myself disparaging other cultures within the guise of religion or cultural traditionalism, and distancing myself from my own culture which does just as much damage to women. Similarly, Reading through the play I constantly found myself thinking that, while this definitely is no exaggeration, it is far removed from the culture I experienced in high school and university. And yet, I know very well that this is not true, despite all my efforts to believe otherwise. It is this instinctive effort to distance myself that is part of the problem, and it's so easy to forget this. Indeed, I nearly stopped myself from even writing this review because of the difficulty in candidly talking about slut shaming and female inequality, and The stigma attached to its discussion. This review will be published on Facebook as I know, and that exposure makes me uncomfortable when discussing these topics. That should not be the case, as anyone will say once they think about it.


It was also a startling revelation to realise how entrenched we are within the slut shaming culture every day. This hit me in a very strange way: I went on YouTube to find a recorded performance of the play. Naturally, as anyone with half a brain will realise, as I should have, searching slut play on YouTube does not return the desired results. But the sheer quantity and viciousness of the results was shocking, particularly having just started reading the actual play. The impact was very real and visceral. As I say, this is a difficult book to read, but it and its surrounding essays are well worth it.

[Amona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great glimpse of how society has been trained to view rape, gender shaming and terminology. Slut culture is everywhere! Boys and girls have not yet been given positive ideas about female sexuality but this book is a great starting point. From the play, the perspectives, laws and social movements, cognitive awareness can come as a result of "slut" exposure.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

horrifying but excellent book, includes the play(which is only a small part of the book) but also accounts from victims and interviews with different organisations. It doesn't just include accounts from female victims, but also includes male victims, information from women of colour and more.

[Mills College Library]

812.60809 S6349 2015

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The play was ok, but where this book really shines is in the teen accounts and the essays.

[Suzette Havenbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone, everywhere needs to read this book. Even if all they read is the play. This is so important for feminism and human rights all over the world.