GIRL THING

To me, the central theme in Girl Thing is that teenage girls have the right to be equally sexual and lost as boys, without being punished or shamed for it. We adults may think we are only protecting girls when we want them to dress and behave in a way that does not provoke anyone, but making girls responsible for someone else’s behaviour is the same bullshit as the whole “your skirt was too short/you begged for it” rape rhetoric. Girls should not have to suppress an essential part of themselves only because some people fail to understand that a child is a child and no means no. Or because for many of us, a wild, curious, and scantily clad girl is too much for some reason. Or because we hope that girls are safe if we teach them to be scared and ashamed.
I do not see predators or victims in Girl Thing. I see girls driven by both insecurity and curiosity, and power that is not explicitly on either side of the window. I see an escalating situation where it would be easy for the adults to shame the girls. But it does not happen. Because it’s their party, their bodies, their right to experiment, screw up, and still feel like there is nothing wrong with them.