Opinion: Why every woman needs to see Caitlin Stasey’s website
CAITLIN Stasey’s new feminist website filled with nude pictures of women has provoked differing opinions. Here’s why those nudes are nailing it.
THIS week ex-Neighbours actress Caitlin Stasey launched her new feminist website herself.com (NSFW), which features nude photos of various women, including Stasey, accompanied with interviews about sexuality, gender and body image.
Yesterday we ran an opinion piece titled ‘Why Caitlin Stasey’s new website misses the mark’.
There have been many differing views to Stasey’s stance. Some young women out there are applauding her for starting a different conversation around women’s bodies.
Here is what one young woman from Perth, 21-year-old Caitlin Creeper who writes for Birdeemag.com, had to say.
“If, when you see this face, all you can think of is innocent Rachel Kinski from Neighbours, or Ellie Linton from Tomorrow When the War Began, you’re missing out. Really.
Caitlin Stasey exploded onto my radar in June last year when she took to Twitter to slam Bindi Irwin for slut-shaming, after Irwin was quoted in an interview as urging girls to “cover up”.
“I’m a big advocate for young girls dressing their age,” Irwin said. “Whether it’s wearing revealing clothes or hardly wearing any clothes at all, I feel really bad for them.”
Irwin had already been in the spotlight in March for ill-informed decisions (hello, SeaWorld partnership), and Stasey wasted no time in lashing out.
“In ten years you’ll wish you stood beside your shared sex rather than be proud you belittled their choices & agency,” she tweeted, before proceeding to take down controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson, who was facing accusations of sexual assault from models he had worked with.
MORE: “Opinion: Let’s cut Caitlin Stasey some slack”
“This industry protects, forgives and celebrates sex offenders in whatever form they come, welcome to the Catholic Church that is Hollywood,” Stasey tweeted.
She’s opinionated, audacious. An advocator of the Free The Nipple movement, frequently outspoken about fluid sexuality (“I know it troubles many people for me to refer to myself as a lesbian considering I have a male partner”), abortion (“Super duper pro pro pro SUPER PRO choice”), religion (“it is one of the greatest tragedies to befall mankind”), casual sex (anyone who would think less of me [after having sex with them] is a f***ing loser, a slut shaming waste of energy and space on earth”) and monogamy (“it’s so pointless, painful and archaic”).
So I was overjoyed to learn Stasey has just launched a new feminist website called herself.com, (NSFW) which features beautiful nude photographs of herself and eight other women, alongside interviews that explore the topics of sexuality, gender, womanhood, self-image, religion, masturbation, abortion, relationships and marriage, to name a few.
The idea behind herself.com, Stasey explains on the site, was to create a space for women to “witness the female form in all its honesty without the burden of the male gaze; without the burden of appealing to anyone”.
And that’s exactly what it is.
“These women are simply & courageously existing, immortalised within these photos,” Stasey says. “Let us reclaim our bodies. Let us take them back from those who seek to profit from our insecurity.”
Citing her idols as Anais Nin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Clementine Ford, Marieke Hardy, Haylee Collins and Malala Yousafzai, Stasey argues that the media depicts women as “sexless unless corrupt, hairless unless masculine & helpless unless evil. We’re not allowed to be gross or crass & intelligent, or beautiful & funny. We have to fit into neat little boxes.” The world views women as either “mothers, sluts, virgins, or wives,” she says.
She also openly discusses her sexuality and the pressure she has felt to have sex. “I often felt compelled to sleep with certain men because I’d A. led them on B. invited them home C. kissed them etc. I’ve since learned that you’re never obliged to do anything with anyone at anytime regardless of circumstance & anyone telling you otherwise is a creep and needs to be re educated.”
I’m NOT saying Stasey’s stances are right or wrong (personally, I tend to fiercely guard my perception of true, intense love as only being able to occur in a circle of two). And she certainly does cop backlash for her tenacity, as is usually the way with any young, opinionated woman in the public eye. Herself.com will probably not silence her critics.
Any close-minded individual might quickly brand Stasey as a bizarre, raving, sex-crazed lunatic. But what I deeply respect is how she attacks such tedious topics with the kind of stare-down conviction that says, “This is what I think and I’m not going to succumb to any external pressures and change my mind … taste it.” How often do we see that, honestly? She isn’t apologetic for feeling a certain way and we sure could do with seeing a lot more women in prominent positions following her lead.
This post originally appeared on Birdee.
