Slags on Stage: Class, Sex, Art and Desire in British Culture

Slags on Stage weaves cultural analysis with poetry and art criticism to explore the concept of the ’slag’ and its place in contemporary British culture.

The book traces the etymology of the word slag through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, thinking through the ways ’slag’ speaks to issues of class, sex and desire. Broadly, slag is an insult bound up with women’s sexual reputations - but beyond this it is a ’key’ word that shapes the ways we debate and understand what it means to be a woman. For women who came of age in the United Kingdom in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries ’slag’ produces complex feelings and has influenced how we have come to know ourselves and understand our sexual and quotidian desires. This book explores the terrain of slag and includes analyses of artworks by artists who have invoked the slag in their practice, including Tracey Emin, Cash Carraway and Michaela Coel. Covering the cultural politics of clothing, motherhood, television representations, sexual assault, sex work and desire, Slags on Stage asks: what role does the ’slag’ play in British culture? Who is she for? And how have women used sex and sexuality to have their own say in cultures that want to control them?

This is a fascinating exploration for students and scholars of British drama, theatre and performance, cultural studies and sociology.

Katie Beswick is a writer and academic; she is Programme Director for the BA Arts Management in the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.