Sticks & Stones

  • J Whitehead
This piece aims to put a spotlight on misogyny and sexism. It began as a therapeutic exercise between my flatmates and I two years ago. We would often experience sexist remarks and behaviour on nights out, on the street and even in our homes. This started to become the main focus of our thoughts and conversation so we needed a way to get it off our chests. We began writing these remarks and actions on sticky notes and putting them on the wall, affectionately naming it ‘the man shame wall’. The cathartic release we felt from this simple exercise was incredible and very quickly we had a physical representation of the scale of the problem. Having left the flat, I had searched for ways to stop myself from dwelling on the emotions attached to such mistreatment from men. This led me to return to the wall, wondering if others had felt similar emotions and how I could open it up to a wider audience and give that sense of relief to more women with similar experiences whilst simultaneously highlighting the scale of the issue. In response to this, I sent out an open call for women who felt they had things to get off their chests. Although they were wary, I found that many of the women were very keen to open up to me in this way. I took photographs with the women holding their sticky notes, some even requested to write more than one. Understandingly many of the women were concerned about anonymity so we worked together to take photographs with a level of anonymity that they were comfortable with. The outcome of this piece became a wall of sticky notes, highlighting the shocking nature of the way these women had been treated and multiple photographic prints of the women holding their sticky notes. I am hoping to take this project further, by opening it up to a much wider audience. I am hoping to provide an opportunity for women to have a cathartic release whilst also creating a much larger wall that is more representative of the scale and severity of sexism in 2018, potentially working alongside the #metoo movement, fighting against rape culture.