A Story for Sluts: A look into Cameryn Moore’s “slut (r)evolution”

Her presence is unapologetic. Wearing a skin-tight black tank top with a fiery red girly skirt, her frame -- much like the baggage she brings onstage -- cannot be contained in the space she is allotted.

“Everybody thinks I’m putting [sex] out there, but it’s just ‘cause I have big tits.”

Cameryn Moore is no stranger to the wild and obscene. Her place on stage at the Montreal Fringe Festival is more than fitting. In her second debuting solo-performance, following hot after last year’s award-winning act in “phone whore”, Moore is yet again scoring big for her unconventional loving. In “slut (r)evolution: no one gets there overnight”, Moore details the stories of her very promiscuous and atypical sex life. In a gripping hour of laughs and candid honesty niched comfortably in a local Plateau café, Moore pushes the audience to look beyond her sexual life as an incendiary account. Alas our libido’s are celebrated; slut-dom reclaimed.

“I bring a lot to the party: It’s my civic duty.”

Having grown up in an American Mormon household, Moore has come a long way from her roots. Today she boasts an impressive resumé from burlesque dancing, group sex, kink retreats, lesbian sex, straight sex, all the way to internet dating. She tells the audience her motto for everything and anything that is consensual is “yes”. Quite notably, there is something very empowering in her sexual flirtings.

“I want to get my freak on!”

The word “slut” has deep roots in Moore’s life. It has been used against her as a label for her lifestyle choices-- from dress, mannerisms, and even sexual escapades.
Today, while Moore performs she keeps a copy of “The Ethical Slut” befittingly by her side. As Moore explains, the book is dedicated to reclaiming the word “slut” from the pejorative to mean simply those who lead a consensually promiscuous life. “Words like “slut” are used to police women’s behaviour,” Moore says reflecting on the experience of herself and women around the world; adding that, as this book brings to mind, "we should diffuse words that injure.” For Moore, the personal is very political: this is the mantra of her slut (r)evolution.

Alas, through her wild stories of sex Moore leaves the audience fulfilling her end of the deal as a performer: she has captivated, moved, and brought questions to our assumptions. There is no greater accomplishment in theatre.

The Guilty Little Secret We ALL Share

(This piece was written as a response to an article featured in Glamour's June, 2010 edition. I am not normally a magazine reader, but I came across this one and felt something had to be said for the girl's side. So, here it is. Hope it can stimulate some interesting conversation, if not imagination.)

"jake" is the pseudo name of a "real, live single guy dating in New York City" and writing editorials for Glamour magazine. "jake (a man's opinion)" is the title of his editorials.

"Highlight reel" definition: the mental tape that rolls in one's head of other sexual partners while in the act of making love to your partner.

“Off in your own world again”?
The Guilty Little Secret We ALL Share: A Response to Jake’s confessional “Highlight Reel”

Looking beyond Vince Vaughn’s “highlight reel” scene in the popular Hollywood blockbuster hit Couples Retreat, is an equally telling scene in the less popular romantic comedy Young People Fucking. The latter film intertwines the stories of various couples in which one of the main plots is that of The Couple, Andrew and Abby. The long-time daters are having trouble with their sex life and, looking to confront the issue, girlfriend Abby challenges her partner to open up sexually.

Unlike Vaughn’s scene where the men assert their guilty pleasure of thinking about other women during sex, in Young People Fucking the so-called “highlight reel” of sex isn’t gendered as a purely male phenomenon. Indeed, when broached by her prodding boyfriend for being “off in her own world again” while in the act, Abby reveals that her imagination often takes her elsewhere and most often to Ian Ziering (in his Beverly Hills days as the heart throb, Steve Sanders).


This is an interesting comparison and it brings to question Jake’s confessional article in Glamour. In an overtly apologetic and revelatory tone, Jake tells his readers that he is guilty of sin like other normal men of mentally wandering during sex. What was well done by Jake is that he reassures us (the females) this is nothing to worry about, for what he and our men are doing is rather quite healthy for relationships. As he points out, nearly all men do it and at the very least it can serve to keep the guy going for longer, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the reassurances, Jake, but no need to apologize-- women are guilty of sin too! Indeed, watching Abby acknowledge and confess her affinity for Hollywood hottie, Ziering makes the audience realize that women, like men, are wanderlusts. We too fixate on various other fantasies during sex.
Perhaps we are not as vocal about it. Perhaps we do not recycle through as many people in our reel. And perhaps some of us won't ever admit it, either to others or ourselves. But women too have wild imaginations that help keep their sex life going. And as Jake concludes this is healthy for men; it's healthy for girls. Actually, it's healthy for US.

So I don’t think Jake should be expecting any "serious hate mail" for his revelatory confession. If anything, after reading this revelation about women and our wanderings in bed I hope he’ll be able to accept the fact that Strawberry (the pseudo name of his female Lover) isn’t 'there' half the time either... .