Hi. Play SLUTS R US here, plz.
"Slut-shaming" is a part of colloquial and scholarly vernacular that emerged in the mid-2000's that describes "the act of making, or attempting to make, a woman or girl feel guilty or inferior for certain sexual behaviors, circumstances, or desires that deviate from traditional or orthodox gender expectations, or that which may be considered to be contrary to natural or religious law" (and that definition is from Wikipedia, because I am pond scum). In it's most typical -- and maybe most tragic -- state of being, slut-shaming emerges as besmirching women for their clothing/appearance choices and adhering sexual implications and assumptions to the women based on their dress.
One of the most basic (and cowardly) forms of slut-shaming is cat-calling in any of its many mutations. We are all familiar with the classic Yelling Something Vulgar Out of Car Windows at Women Walking on the Street. There's the stereotypical Construction Workers Verbally Violating Women as They Innocently Pass By. There's the Anonymous Wolf Whistle in a Crowd. All of these, no matter how innocent or well-intended, are forms of sexual harassment. Feeling the right to comment, especially sexually comment, on a woman's body is not only gross and embarrassing, but also misogynistic and derogatory.
My Twine game, "SLUTS R US," features an array of scenarios that hopefully address a wide-ish variety of reactions to slut-shaming and possible misconceptions about what it is and how to deal with it. For example, one of the common yet problematic mindsets that people have is that only women wearing "slutty" clothing will be slut-shamed. This is definitely not the case. Besides the fact that modesty is relative, even women wearing traditionally "decent" clothing may be assaulted for the sight of their body in any clothes. That's why I included clothing options that were more likely to be viewed as "suggestive" -- like a bikini top or a pair of short-shorts -- but I also added the option to pick a ΓΌbermodest pair of BYU-approved knee-length shorts and a school t-shirt. But no matter what the player chooses to wear, slut-shaming and cat-calling are still problems that they, as literal or virtual women, have to face. That's why the Twine format is so useful in the discussion and education of objectification of women in media/games; instead of trying to talk about how to portray "strong" or "realistic" depictions of women (like Anita Sarkeesian talks about with Stephen Colbert here), Twine forces the player into a position that isn't just a "realistic" woman, it's actually you.
I referenced Chimanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk, "The Danger of a Single Story," in the creation of SLUTS R US, particularly the part where Adichie has to reconcile the fact that she initially believed that all stories were about foreigners with the reality stories can be about anyone and any place. I added an option to my game where players who didn't understand the harm of cat-calling and in fact felt flattered by it could learn about why it's actually offensive and destructive, which hopefully kind of mimics the way Adichie had to come to terms with something she assumed she understood, even though that wasn't the case.
