V Day at Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2016
Have you ever taken a nude photograph?
In today’s 21st century tech-savvy generation, the ease of taking and sharing pictures is unprecedented with social media and cross platform messaging applications such as Snapchat facilitating the sharing of information to never before seen heights.
However, what happens when some of these pictures, specifically nude photographs, are distributed without consent? Grassrooted’s V-Day event at the Galle Literary Festival will focus on this issue of cyber exploitation. The pieces were performed in Kandy on the 9th of January and will be performed in Galle on the 15th and in Jaffna on the 23rd. The event will explore both the negative and positive aspects of taking nude photographs from the feelings of liberation to feelings of shame with the aim of not telling people what to do but rather to think. It also aims to highlight that the problem does not lie within the actual taking of the photographs but arises when they get into the hands of a third party and are used for blackmail, are sold or are simply shared with the aim of inflating the sharer’s ego. Very few creative liberties have been taken with the writing of the scripts as they are based almost entirely on real life testimonies. Unfortunately, Sri Lankan law has yet to adequately accommodate for cyber exploitation and the stigma associated with problems of this nature in Sri Lankan culture make it difficult for the topic to be discussed openly and for victims to report these crimes, so perhaps this will mark the beginning of the opening of an honest discussion around such issues which are all too often kept hidden within the folds of society.
The V-Day events began in 2012 with a performance of ‘A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer,’ compiled by Eve Ensler, creator of the Vagina Monologues. The work then progressed to performances which hit a little closer to home, focusing on survivors of incest, sex workers and partner violence in Sri Lanka however all events have the overarching theme of the disequilibrium in society created by a system of patriarchal hegemony.
Dr. Chitranga Kariyawasan
My piece focuses on women’s exploitation in the sense that women are not able to travel in public transport without being harassed by men. Being a victim of such harassment myself, having been groped many times whilst on public transport, I am a strong believer that attitudes in Sri Lanka need to change so that women are no longer treated as toys for male satisfaction but are treated with equal respect.
Anuruddha Fernando
The piece that I’m doing is the one thing that is not about cyber exploitation but is about the everyday struggle of women in a patriarchal society. Cyber exploitation has increased at an alarming rate with nude photographs being shared on databases and used as a tool of extortion. Young girls in particular face a lot of peer pressure which leads them to do things they may later regret. This has developed into a subculture which has slipped under the radar and this is why awareness has to be raised.
Danu Innasithamby
A generation gap exists as parents of the older generation are not aware of what is happening and by the time they figure it out, someone else would have lost their right to privacy on the internet. My piece is about a group of boys who have shared a nude picture and who are discussing their feelings about doing so.
Dominic Keller
Everyone knows that this issue exists, most of us have also been part of it, but no one really talks about it until now. My monologue is about a guy like most guys that loves pictures of women of all sorts, really all sorts.
By Upeksha Hettiarachchi
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