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.

This project was formally called No Big Deal.