The four girls’ experiences of young people’s erotization and the gaze of outsiders will be seen at the Baltic Circle festival as a performance that questions narrow beauty standards.
Or he’s not used to it, because you shouldn’t get used to it.
– Most people our age have been sent intimate pictures or asked for them. Or you’ve wanted to be friends, and then it’s suddenly escalated into crossing sexual boundaries. It seems like it’s a basic thing and happens to a lot of people, although it’s by no means acceptable.
When Volta was about eleven years old, he started being active on social media, that’s where all his friends were.
In addition, something in the social media pictures of the daughter and her friends made me think. Why did the girls’ pictures look exactly the way they did? The gaze with which the pictures were taken seemed to Rajakanga to be a very traditional male gaze.
– After all, it is a learned behavior that is related to strong beauty ideals. A girl still has to have a certain look and shape, Rajakangas reflects.
Rajakangas discussed the matter with his daughter, and that’s how the dance piece started together, which is now being seen as part of the international Baltic Circle festival in Helsinki.
Because it’s easy to get caught in social media, the young people in this story appear exceptionally with just their first names.
Young people’s stories for dance
there are four young people, each of whom has a voice that can be seen and heard.
is based on the participating young people’s own experiences of the standards set for girlhood in the 2020s and sexual harassment, for example the phrases that appear in the messages sent to them.
– For example, someone comes and suggests that they give you 50 euros if you do this or that for me. It’s really intrusive and there’s a lot of it if you’re under 18.
for good reason.
While the classic, naked beauty rises from the waves with only her divinely beautiful hair, she is angry and bored because of the dance piece and has decided to exist in the world on her own terms.
Worked together by the youth and Rajakanka, it roars and roars and is perfect just as it is.
– Together we have thought about how to break the girl norm. We do it in this piece, but these girls do it all the time anyway. They also take it out on each other. A completely different Venus is rising from the sea now, sums up Rajakangas.
The younger, the more vulnerable
Sexual harassment is not limited to the internet or Facebook. It still exists in the physical world as well.
– In a way, I have been spared social media experiences, but still, harassment has happened since I was a child. In first grade, the boys in our class slapped us girls on the asses. When we told our female teacher, she said that they just like you. That’s when he got the impression that the gesture would have been acceptable and justified.
Sexual harassment is not a new phenomenon, but in the lives of today’s teenagers, it is carried in their pockets, Volta points out. When your phone is with you everywhere, you can’t escape.
– Many people who were our age a long time ago do not understand how harassment penetrates everywhere.
All four young dancers say the same thing: men who prey on the Internet choose especially girls who are barely at the age of puberty.
Bigger girls already have the edge and the skills to put iron on the line. They are not as easy victims.
– The younger I was, the more contacts I received from older men. As an older person, I’ve learned to be wary of these people and I also feel like they know that younger girls are easier to manipulate.
\”Nowadays I focus more on real life\”
Sexually tinged approaches and narrow concepts of beauty and cool affect how girls are on social media, or whether they are there at all.
For example, Seela decided to leave Tiktok, even though \”everyone else\” is there.
– I noticed that it worsened my condition and started to hurt me mentally. Now I focus more on real life and don’t take everything so seriously.
However, leaving Social Media is not quite simple. Sometimes it would be nice to participate in communities that share the same interest or hobby, but there is always concern. Anyone can get bored at any time and anyone can end up being an eye candy.
– You have to think about the fact that if those people who like the same thing cause the same anxiety as some other people on social media, Volta thinks.
\”Be yourself – but not too much\”
Mea carefully got lost in the real and imagined norms of social media a few years ago.
When he was in middle school, he lost himself completely and didn’t understand how strongly external pressure limited his being.
– I got the feeling that I had to fit in and be with the crowd, but stand out enough not to be left in a vacuum. If you’re not yourself, you’re fake and you won’t be accepted, but you can’t be yourself too much. I lost my identity completely. I decided to be invisible.
Mea concluded that the safest thing is not only not to show one’s personality, but actually not to look for it at all.
– Finding yourself and daring to be yourself required a lot of work and reflection. For a long time I had to deal with who I am or who I want to be without the frames set by society. Fortunately, there are opportunities to be a part of such projects as , whose basic idea is to shake off these strange patterns.
In addition to how important it is for young performers to express themselves through movement and a common voice, it is also important for them to lean on each other.
It’s easier to be brave when you have a friend next to you. Natalia sums up the feelings of the crowd.
– This work is really empowering as a woman. Every time you pull it, you get a really strong feeling. As if this thing is won, even though it isn’t yet. And even more than the work, you get strength and confidence from these diverse, beautiful people who are involved in this.