“One in Three”
Personal atrocities such as sexual assaults often desire the safety of assuming their isolation, however this is rarely the case; Instead under conflict theory, ideologically pervaded constructs inform outcomes such that few instances occur in isolation (Barr, Scott, et al). Such is founded by C. Wright Mills’ The Sociological Imagination, which draws on the assertion that presumably individual problems ensue from social contexts or environments under certain degrees of statistical relevancy (4). With this, One in Three refers to statistics from StatCan finding that under the grim subset of the 5% of sexual crimes reported, “one in three (32%) women” experience unwanted sexual behaviour in public, and 30% of women experience being sexually assaulted after the age of 15 (Cotter and Savage). Although these statistics are significantly indicative, responsive disparities are evident when contrasting the breast cancer epidemic, affecting only 12.5% of Canadian women (Lee). In response, One in Three emphasises the cultural landscape of trivialization and facilitation of sexual violence. Signifying the individualized experience, an assemblage of personalized items is presented consisting of a queen-sized sheet and duvet set from the site of a sexual assault, human hair from the survivor, and the razor that shaved it off. By locating these distressed items on the unnatural surface of a concrete floor in contrast to the comfort of a bed, danger and discomfort are betoken. The impact is intensified with a projected collage of media scenes ultimately making light of sexual violence, taken from the millennially-consumed movies Easy A (2010), Jennifer’s Body (2009), The Squid and the Whale (2005), Election (1999), Man in the Moon (1991), Pretty Woman (1990), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Sixteen Candles (1984). In a final overwhelming layer of audio, a 36 year old male, 30 year old woman, and 8 year old girl are heard making statements relevant to their age-and-gender-specific level of social discourse perpetuation. In all, this work uses a multi-media approach to materiality to represent the personal and social contexts entwined in sexual violence, problematizing the culture around such, and asking viewers to reflect on their susceptibility to participatorily naturalize these issues.
References
Barr, Scott, et al. “Conflict Theory and Deviance.” Introduction to Sociology LumenOpenStax, NSCC, 1 July 2021, https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/lumensociology2/chapter/conflict-theory-and-deviance/.
Cotter, Adam, and Laura Savage. “Gender-Based Violence and Unwanted Sexual Behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial Findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces.” Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, 5 Dec. 2019, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00017-eng.htm.
Lee, Sid. “Breast Cancer Statistics.” Canadian Cancer Society, 2022, https://cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-types/breast/statistics.
Mills, C. Wright. “The Sociological Imagination Chapter One: The Promise .” Middlebury College, 2013, https://sites.middlebury.edu/utopias/files/2013/02/The-Promise.pdf.