Stop slutshaming the ‘Magaluf girl’

Over the weekend, a video of a girl going down on 24 guys in Magaluf, Majorca, went viral. 

Reportedly an 18-year-old British tourist, the girl was told by party organisers that performing the feat would win her a holiday.  But as it turned out, they meant a cocktail called ‘Holiday’ and all she got was a free drink.

Feminist groups, politicians, and local police were outraged after seeing the 2 minute 40 second video, filmed by one of the club promoters at the party.

Comments on Twitter, Facebook, and tabloid websites ranged from ridiculing the girl for thinking she’d actually win a holiday, to condemning her for sucking off so many people, and for doing it in public.

The girl was described as “vile,” “sick,” “disgusting,” with “no morals.”  But was it actually so wrong?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0PaweRHHfs

I don’t think so.  She was definitely silly to do it without first checking that she’d actually win the holiday and not just a £3 drink – just like you’d be silly to pay £500 for a ‘holiday’ that turned out to be a drink.

But if really were a holiday up for grabs, I’m pretty sure a lot more people would’ve done it.

Those critics are just yet another example of our ridiculous slutshaming culture.  In theory, everyone says they support sexual freedom and people’s rights to do what they want as consenting adults.

But when a video like this emerges, the media and the world seem to go back 60 years and become disgusted by oral sex.

What’s more, almost all the criticism is directed at the girl – barely a thing is said about the 24 guys who put their dicks in a stranger’s mouth.

The fact is, this happened in a bar in Magaluf, the party capital of Majorca.  The host, a company called Magaluf Carnage, promotes their holiday package as a time to “snog a passer-by,” “play raunchy games,” and “have a lap-dance.”

Magaluf is a place for these wild parties.  It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the people who go on these holidays are just looking for an appropriate place to have this kind of fun.  And there’s nothing wrong with that – they’re all consenting adults, it’s their own bodies and it’s not like they’re doing it in a children’s park or hurting anyone else.

Some people are likening the girl’s choices to prostitution because she did it to win something in return.  But that’s ridiculous too.  Prostitution is awful because it ISN’T a choice. Prostitutes in brothels and on the streets are forced to resort to prostitution out of extreme poverty, and we should help them, not judge them.

Robben goes down easier than that girl in Magaluf. pic.twitter.com/CL8yMdXYWj

— Memz Dogi (@Memz_Dogi) July 5, 2014

But when a consenting adult chooses to have sex or use their body to give someone pleasure, and takes some form of payment in return – what’s wrong with that?  I don’t think it’s very different to modelling or giving massages.

And let’s face it: oral sex is for the benefit of the receiver.  The giver doesn’t get much pleasure out of it.  Sex really isn’t an erotic Mills And Boon fantasy.  People don’t go down on their partner out of sheer love and passion for them: it’s usually so that their partner returns the favour, or – dare I say it – because they feel like doing something wild and fun.

I’m not sure how this girl’s actions are very different from normal sex.

What WAS wrong, however, was the video itself.  The club promoter who shot the video, and everyone else in the video also filming on their phones, had no right to film the people involved without their consent. and posting the video online was even worse.

In the bar in Magaluf, the people involved were doing nothing wrong, but spread the video around the world and the girl is vilified and slutshamed.

The magaluf girl be like… pic.twitter.com/YMKkLLytnT — Ashllleeey (@fearnie07) July 4, 2014

This all boils down to an issue of privacy. The participants in this video (both male and female) will have been aware that their actions were being watched by an audience in the bar and will have accepted that fact.

What they couldn’t be expected to anticipate is the reaction of an online audience who weren’t at the party and who would never see the appeal of a holiday in Magaluf.  It’s not fair to show people a video they were never supposed to see.

Photography and video sharing should be done responsibly.  The person who posted the video took advantage of the girl’s choices and humiliated her, exposing her to the whole world’s criticism and ridicule. If anyone should be ashamed, it’s him.