OUGD502 - Brief 02 - Collaboration - Atomic Pussy

In the early stages level 04, Lo and Charlotte approached me to get involved with a zine that they were working on. The zine tackles feminist themes and issues as well as current social and cultural affairs. During summer 2015, Lo and Charlotte approached me about writing an article for the zine and designing accompanying visual material.

During the summer holidays, I came across a number of articles online which discussed issues surrounding sexual identity and fluidity amongst youth of UK. I decided to write an article discussing these issues, expressing my personal views in the process. This was an enjoyable self directed project which allowed me to really delve into and question my own cultural and social views. It was really fun producing some graphic design to accompany the article. I experimented with marbelling techniques and digital collaging; processes which I really enjoy. 

Here is my article:

Apparently, as a generation, around half of us don't identify as ‘straight’. You might be thinking, really? Half?! That’s exactly what I thought when I read an article published on Dazed Digital back in August. According to a recent study, a large amount of young people in Britain are ‘seriously fluid’ when it comes to their sexuality. I don’t know about you, but the term ‘sexually fluid’ is pretty new to me. Before early 2015, I had very limited knowledge of what it means to be sexually ‘fluid’. To put it simply, the term can be used to describe someone who experiences one or more changes in sexual identity or sexual orientation throughout their life. Pretty interesting stuff.

If you look at research on this topic, a picture starts to emerge. Research suggests that women as a ‘group’ tend to be more sexually fluid than men. For example, lesbian-identifying women are significantly more likely to have heterosexual sex compared to gay-identifying men. These are statistical associations that are entirely relative, and of course the results from many studies say nothing about all women or all men. There are many men and women who show no signs of sexual fluidity at all. However, the specific study discussed on Dazed indicates that larger numbers of both men and women in my generation are amongst some of the most fluid people in history.

It can be easy to get sexually fluid people confused with those who identify as bisexual. But what you must remember is that individual sexual preferences are not set in stone and can change over time. As a generation we are obviously very vocal about these feelings, compared to say people who were in their teens in the early part of the 20^th century. Like any other social trait, sexual preferences, attitudes, behaviours and identity can be flexible to some degree and we need to educate ourselves in order to increase acceptance across society.

It should be common knowledge that human sexuality exists on a spectrum, however some still choose to ignore this. Nowadays, it isn’t uncommon for many people to opt out on using labels. To me, using labels tends to lead to stereotypes being associated with those specific labels and stereotypes lead to phobias of people that identify as LGBTQ. I believe it should be down to the individual to decide how they want to view and accept themselves, rather than society. Abandoning labels for fluidity is in my opinion, not a bad thing. That is obviously my own personal outlook; however my views are shared by others. Simply because change occurs does not mean that women’s or men’s sexuality is strange or confusing, mysterious, or overly complex. Human sexuality is complicated and is not currently fully understood in any sense of the word. But, as general attitudes towards the LGBTQ community continue to progress massively across the world, so will acceptance towards fluidity, especially in western culture.

Sexual fluidity has always been a prominent  yet mysterious force in humanity’s sexual culture, it’s just for some reason we’ve never really been great at discussing it openly or sensibly. So why is it now, in the 21^st century, loads of people seem to be discussing it? Well, in order to get a grasp on what’s currently going on, you need only look at the recent past. We are currently experiencing a sexual revolution. It’s been building in momentum for many years; we have radical artists and public figures such as Grace Jones, David Bowie, Boy George and RuPaul to thank for the liberal attitudes shared by a growing number of people particularly in the west. They were the original forerunners of the sexual revolution. During the late 70’s and throughout the 80’s, androgyny was big, bold and in the spotlight. It was confidence that pioneered a sexually fluid generation who are not afraid to discuss how they feel. Those radical, new wave performers were bending genders and challenging conventions way before it entered the mainstream consciousness.  A lot of people I know are not intimated by all forms of self expression, sexuality and kinds of self love. That is something that I am proud to be a part of.  As a generation, we are pretty good at being liberal and accepting. We definitely owe a lot to those who were brave enough to simply be themselves.

I like to think that in 20 or 30 years time, I will be able to look back to current times in the same way I look back at the 80s. I want to feel thankful that I was around to experience a highly pivotal time in human sexualities’ complex history. If you don’t want to label yourself then don’t, there ain’t nothing wrong with being a bit fluid now and again. 

Lo and Charlotte then approved my article, edited it down to make it shorter and snappier and also completely re-thought my visual work that accompanied the article. I wasn't affected by this because I am not in charge of the editorial design for the zine, so I completely understood and respected their decision to edit the content that I had provided. I am really proud to be a part of the zine, I feel it is really current and tackles issues that definitely effect my generation. It is good experience as well, producing self directed work definitely makes me a stronger, more well rounded designer.