There’s a revolution coming, and it’s led by the sluts! Actually, it’s led by Cameryn Moore, a big sexy gal who revels in a word often used to diminish libidinous women and their sexual appetites.
“I feel great about the word slut,” says Moore. “I understand that it’s a highly charged word and I’m not asking anyone else to claim it for themselves, but I am personally very comfortable with it.”
Moore’s made a career out of frank and funny discussions pertaining to her life between the sheets, drawing on an activist background to break through the barriers around female sexuality. Her works include a performance piece called Phone Whore, detailing her stint as a phone sex operator, and slut (r)evolution, which arrives this month at the Sixth Gallery.
The piece is a sort of merger of memories and manifesto, as Moore puts forth thoughtful and provocative insights about women in search of sexual pleasure. In a culture that often sees female sexuality as a response to male desire, her slut (r)evolution monologue can be quite a shock to the more prudish audience member.
“I’ve often found myself defending the pursuit of fantasy and sexuality in our own minds,” Moore says. “I had to come down on the side of pleasure and fantasy being important and defend the pursuit of sexual pleasure in its own right.”
It hasn’t always been an easy task, given Moore’s own journey toward embracing her physicality and sexuality. The sensual, relaxed confidence she exudes is something the artist has spent a lifetime building.
“My dad called me a slut when I was 13,” she remembers. “I was raised Mormon and started rebelling against that at an early age by constantly pushing curfews. I had just come back from my friend’s house. It wasn’t like I came in dripping of cum or anything, but my dad was mad, and as I ran up to my room I heard him through the thin walls calling me a fat slut.”
Payback must be sweet for the Boston-based performance artist, as her shows tour sold-out Fringe stages to rapturous, horny audiences. And if daddy dearest would blanch at her candour, Moore feels that a down-and-dirty approach to talking about who she fucks is necessarily real and honest.
“The word slut has an important part to play in how society can change its views on empowered, conscious sexuality,” she says. “I’m a bisexual woman who loves sex, and I feel there needs to be more room for the shifting and fluidity of sexuality. Anything that doesn’t negatively impact someone else has to be okay. If being a drunk slut appeals, then go ahead and be a drunk slut!”
The Deets:
slut (r)evolution
Fri, April 20 and Sat, April 21 at 9pm
The Sixth Gallery
1642 Queen St W
Paul Hutcheson opens
brownpapertickets.com
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