Rape myths - virgins and whores

Diving into the Wreck 

Adrienne Rich 

 

First having read the book of myths, 

and loaded the camera, 

and checked the edge of the knife-blade, 

I put on 

the body-armor of black rubber 

the absurd flippers 

the grave and awkward mask. 

I am having to do this 

not like Cousteau with his 

assiduous team 

aboard the sun-flooded schooner 

but here alone. 

 

There is a ladder. 

The ladder is always there 

hanging innocently 

close to the side of the schooner. 

We know what it is for, 

we who have used it. 

Otherwise 

it is a piece of maritime floss 

some sundry equipment. 

 

I go down. 

Rung after rung and still 

the oxygen immerses me 

the blue light 

the clear atoms 

of our human air. 

I go down. 

My flippers cripple me, 

I crawl like an insect down the ladder 

and there is no one 

to tell me when the ocean 

will begin. 

 

First the air is blue and then 

it is bluer and then green and then 

black I am blacking out and yet 

my mask is powerful 

it pumps my blood with power 

the sea is another story 

the sea is not a question of power 

I have to learn alone 

to turn my body without force 

in the deep element. 

 

And now: it is easy to forget 

what I came for 

among so many who have always 

lived here 

swaying their crenellated fans 

between the reefs 

and besides 

you breathe differently down here. 

 

I came to explore the wreck. 

The words are purposes. 

The words are maps. 

I came to see the damage that was done 

and the treasures that prevail. 

I stroke the beam of my lamp 

slowly along the flank 

of something more permanent 

than fish or weed 

 

the thing I came for: 

the wreck and not the story of the wreck 

the thing itself and not the myth 

the drowned face always staring 

toward the sun 

the evidence of damage 

worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty 

the ribs of the disaster 

curving their assertion 

among the tentative haunters. 

 

This is the place. 

And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair 

streams black, the merman in his armored body. 

We circle silently 

about the wreck 

we dive into the hold. 

I am she: I am he 

 

whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes 

whose breasts still bear the stress 

whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies 

obscurely inside barrels 

half-wedged and left to rot 

we are the half-destroyed instruments 

that once held to a course 

the water-eaten log 

the fouled compass 

 

We are, I am, you are 

by cowardice or courage 

the one who find our way 

back to this scene 

carrying a knife, a camera 

a book of myths 

in which 

our names do not appear. 

Notes: 

¹ In reality this kind of rape statistically speaking is rare. In majority of the cases the perpetrator is someone the victim knows.  

² Kalevala and Lönnrot have been a subject of controversy in their cultural appropriation and colonialisation of Karelian culture. Karelians are indigenous people living in the borders of Finland and Russia. Over half of the poems in Kalevala have been adapted from Karelian heritage. So, it is debatable can Kalevala in fact be claimed as Finnish culture.

 Feminist re-writing 


“A woman’s body has never been her own. [...] It has been the target of superstition, preconception, disdain, admiration, torture and worship for a millennium.” (Utrio, 1984). Myths present archetypes for women that can be perceived still today in how they shape societal narratives and define accepted roles for women. Myths are especially revealing in their simplified categorizations and binaries of women’s narratives which can help illuminate the harmful attitudes around gender roles and sexual violence. “A person’s self-image is built through their culture, and the culture provides myths and stories, which repeat and strengthen this foundational experience” (Koivunen, 2005, p. 12).

I am proposing parallelling artistically modern-day rape myths with old traditional myths, specifically depictions of mythical women. I particularly draw from the national epic of Finland, Kalevala. Through my artistic work I partake in feminist re-writing of myths. 


The dual orientation of reaching towards the contextual past while at the same orientating tightly with the current reality and understanding it in a new way, is typical for feministic re-writings. In feministic re-writings of myths, the reality is re-written through revisioning past writings and parallelling them with everyday elements of the current reality. (Halonen & Karkulehto, 2017, p.198, translation me)


Feminist art has a history of using the method of rewriting as a way to criticize and to highlight societal issues. Body art specifically has contributed to rewriting social structures and cultural assumptions through enacting them differently (Schneider, 1997). I contribute to this same canon as an artist.  

Whore or a fucking whore


The female archetypes found in traditional myths often mirror the beliefs about women found in modern day rape myths. Let us take a moment to study the behavioural models they propose for women. 

Women in epics serve roughly three roles (Piilola, 2019): 

  1. The beauty 

  1. The support and safety for men 

  1. The antagonist of men 

The women in myths are seen mostly through binaries and almost always through their relationship to men. The woman is either desired/dreaded and tough/delicate.The patriarchal model in myths sees female sexuality through two functions: giving birth to future generations or fulfilling the needs of men. Whether they are considered evil or good is defined through the capability to fulfil these roles. (Koivunen, 2005).  

The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale divides modern day rape myths into subscales: “she asked for it”,“he didn’t mean to”,“it wasn’t really rape” and “she lied”. The myths address the common attitudes towards rape that contribute to for example victim-blaming. The rape myths reveal similar polarised attitudes as the roles of women in myths. “If a woman gives [sex], she is a whore, but if she doesn’t, she is a fucking whore.” (Koivunen, 2005, p.39, translation by me).  

Women’s sexuality in Western myths can mostly be read through the binary of a non-sexual Madonna (the virgin mother Mary) or a whore repenting her sexuality (Mary Magdalene) (Koivunen, 2005).One can see the similar harmful narrative of being virtuous in modern day rape myths.  

The “ideal victim” of rape is a young woman who was not wearing revealing clothing, did not consume alcohol, physically resisted her perpetrator (possibly leaving physical marks) and showing clear signs of emotional distress. The “classic rape” 1 is one where the perpetrator is a stranger and it happens violently outside. These types of rapes are more likely to be reported and prosecuted (Taylor, 2020). 

Victim blaming occurs especially with rapes that do not fit this category.“Simply put victim blaming is the transference of blame for an act of sexual violence away from the perpetrator of the violence and back towards the victim” (Taylor, 2020, p. 26). Victim blaming can most commonly be divided into three categories (Taylor, 2020):  

  1. Behaviour (e.g. drinking, flirting, what was she wearing) 

  1. Personality (e.g. the person is seen as too trusting, dumb or risky) 

  1. Situational blame (e.g. parks or parties are dangerous) 

The victim can be perceived as having been too naïve or trusting, but also, they can be blamed for being too risky, sexual or flirty. The binary of a virgin or a whore seems to be alive and well. The space for women expressing their sexuality without blame is incredibly narrow or non-existent.  

A concrete example of how victim blaming is seen the society is rape prevention campaigns. They almost always focus on affecting victim behaviours about how to avoid being raped rather than telling people not to rape (see Taylor, 2020). “It is rather surprising that we have spent such a considerable amount of time [a millennium] asking what is wrong with these women who keep becoming victims of men?” (Taylor, 2020, p. 6). 

All in all, rape myths contribute to harmful attitudes supporting the mistreatment of victims. Artistically I use the parallel of myths to bring attention to how false beliefs about rape and women’s sexuality still persist in society. In Finland 60% of men believe that gender equality has already been reached (Nytkis ry, 2024). So, there is work to be done. 

 

Notes: 

1 In reality this kind of rape statistically speaking is rare. In majority of the cases the perpetrator is someone the victim knows (see Statistics)


 

Aino — the virgin who drowns herself


Sexual and domestic violence are huge societal issues in Finland. There is a saying that Finland is the safest country in the world, except inside your own home. Finland is Europe’s second most dangerous country for women with around half having experienced physical or sexual violence (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2012; Attila et al., 2023). In 2017 by estimate 50 000 women experienced sexual violence, but only 209 rapes were convicted (Amnesty Finland, 2019). 25% of young men believe women can deserve violence, for example through behaviour or appearance (Nytkis ry, 2024). The increase of such attitudes has raised concern in the recent years. The surrounding culture of silence persists in our society. 

Kalevala is the national epic of Finland 1. It was constructed by Elias Lönnrot in 1835. Lönnrot collected oral folklore and mythology, combined and modified them to create one epic in written form. Kalevala and Lönnrot had a significant effect on creating the written form of Finnish language. One of the main reasons for creating Kalevala was to strengthen the sense of Finland as its own nation, separate from Russia or Sweden. It is notable that Finland gained independence only in 1917. Kalevala is one of the most important (if not the most important) works that the Finnish nationalistic imagery and cultural identity is built on (Laaksonen et al., 2009; Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura, n.d.). 

In the epic there is a character called Aino. Aino's story has been formed by combining several different folk tales. The stories unfold along these lines: Aino's brother loses a singing match and promises her as a wife for old Väinämöinen, the central figure of Kalevala. Her mother is overjoyed by the union, seeing it as a great opportunity. Väinämöinen ambushes Aino in the forest. In her despair, Aino chooses to prevent the marriage by drowning herself in a lake. There, she is transformed into a fish. Aino is the most popular female character from Kalevala depicted in art. (Nenola & Timonen, 1990; Piilola, 2019). 

Kalevala provides three archetypes for women (Nenola & Timonen, 1990): 

  1. The mother 

  1. The evil woman (mature, independent, in power) 

  1. The young woman (not evil) 

In Kalevala Aino presents the archetype of the fantasy of a young woman who is “a creature to be controlled and sexually tamed” (Piilola, 2019, p. 68). The transformation into a fish can be read either as a way for Aino finding her own will (Piilola, 2019) or as a way for her to protect her virginity (Koivunen, 2005). Aino fits the categories of a virgin beauty and the young woman precisely. Aino could also be considered into the modern-day category of an ideal victim in her innocence. 

A less depicted character is Louhi. Louhi is the main character who fits the category of “the evil woman”. Louhi is the leader of the North and has magical powers. She is strong, mature and an active character in the story. Louhi is visualized as an old, tired, even ugly or monstrous woman (see Kaunio, 2019).  

Aino being the archetype of “Finnish maiden” (= Suomi-neito) in nationalistic imagery and her story’s connection to sexual violence, virginity and suicide were an important source of inspiration for my artistic work. Reimagining Aino’s story as her not having to drown herself to avoid forced marriage and sexual violence was one of the important sources of inspiration for After. What if the archetype of Aino had elements of the strength and agency of Louhi? 

I see the narrowness of the available female narratives as striking. Kalevala serves as an excellent example of how to shape the portrayal of women to serve nationalistic ideology (Nenola & Timonen, 1990). Currently in society polarisation is increasing, and the far right and traditional nationalistic values are becoming more popular. Taylor also recognizes how victim blaming in the society is in fact becoming more acceptable (2020). I believe it is incredibly important that we provide alternative narratives and depictions of women, sexuality and violence during these times. 

Even though not ending up creating a literal reimagination of the story of Aino or Louhi, the questions they raise of the binaries passive/ active and victim/agent influenced the formation of the concept of post victim which is at the centre of both this research and After. Also, the binary of virgin/ whore in expression of sexuality is integral in my research. I propose a woman that does not have to choose between being a virgin or a whore, evil or good, Aino or Louhi. I propose more room for ambiguities and intricacies in the discourse through the portrayal of a post victim body on stage in After. 

 

Notes: 

1 Kalevala and Lönnrot have been a subject of controversy in their cultural appropriation and colonialisation of Karelian culture. Karelians are indigenous people living in the borders of Finland and Russia. Over half of the poems in Kalevala have been adapted from Karelian heritage. So, it is debatable can Kalevala in fact be claimed as Finnish culture. 

 

Not a whore nor a virgin (and what’s wrong with whores anyway) 

This is the body of a woman who 
may be looked at 
but is not there for your gaze unless she chooses so 
This is the body of someone 
strong, vulnerable, independent, dependent, capable 
someone who 
survives, unravels, lives, crumbles, rebuilds, rewrites 
Someone who rerererererewrites.