Girls Like That poses tough but necessary questions for social media generation
Boys who sleep around are studs and girls who sleep around are sluts — that statement is wrong, it’s damaging and it is at the centre of the Evan Placey play, Girls Like That.
The play is being staged by Shameless Hussy Productions in collaboration with Theatre Temp’s Dream Big Productions and Templeton Secondary’s Girls in Leadership Club at Templeton Secondary in November.
In the play, during a history lesson when the teacher is talking about the suffragettes, a naked picture of main character Scarlett lands on the phones of all the students in the school. Scarlett’s friends don’t console her, but rather body shame and finger-point.
When the same thing happens to a popular boy, the reactions are very different. His popularity rises as Scarlett’s suffers.
“High school is full drama. There are always fights, people turning on each other. People talking behind people’s back,” said Alison Moreau, the Grade 12 student playing Scarlett. “It’s a really great learning experience for people to see her story and witness her journey.”
Scarlett’s story is an all too familiar one. Toronto-raised Placey was inspired by the 2012 suicide of Amanda Todd, the 15-year-old Port Coquitlam girl who was blackmailed into exposing her breasts on a webcam. She was bullied and assaulted, and before she died she made a video with flash cards detailing her story. The video went viral and the world paused for a brief minute.
“It very much fits into our mandate of telling provocative stories about women — to inspire the hand that rocked the cradle to rock the world,” said director Renee Iaci of Shameless Hussy Productions.
“We thought, what an amazing opportunity this would be for us to get involved,” said Tanya Zambrano, a teacher in the Girls in Leadership program and the drama department. “We read the script with the girls and they loved it. A few of them actually auditioned and are in the show.”
Behind the scenes, the show is packed with girls from the leadership program.
The program and the play are a good fit, as the story of Scarlett is a familiar one in our world of social media, revenge porn, online bullying and the reality Harvey Weinstein has come to represent. The minefield today’s young women have to navigate supplies plenty of topics of conversation in the Girls in Leadership program.
The program has been a welcome part of Moreau’s high school life.
“I really feel like it is a safe and inviting environment, and a really
good way to make friends and connections. You are not afraid to be yourself there, and to speak up about what you’re thinking,” said Moreau, who plans on pursuing acting after graduation.
“I feel like we discuss a lot of important topics and a lot of us have opinions and it’s interesting to hear everyone’s opinion on these topics. I think it is really cool the kind of opportunities we get.”
Those opportunities include exposure to successful women mentors and community outreach and volunteering opportunities.
“I definitely feel like I opened up a lot more,” said Moreau, who came to Templeton in Grade 10 from Windermere. “I guess I was kind of shy because I really didn’t know how to make new friends all over again but the program really helped me with that.”
While the shaming of Scarlett is at the centre of the story, what becomes clear is the concept of support — or rather lack of support as friends Scarlett has known since kindergarten suddenly act like judgmental strangers.
“For me, I think it is a call to arms,” Zambrano said. “I keep telling the girls I teach that some of the most important people in my life are my girlfriends ... I have my family, but also really need my girlfriends to survive.
“We need to be better with each other. I’m not perfect. We all have our moments — we all do. Honestly, me doing this job, I strive to be better because I am now a mentor for these young people.”
This is an important play. Take your teens and sit through some uncomfortable moments (sex is talked about) — moments that do end up being of the teachable kind.
“It has made me more aware of what can and has happened,” said Moreau. “It has taught me how to handle these kind of things, and to be more sensitive to other people.”