"You are not a slot machine."
"She stayed, got laid. But she got played. Now she just wants Him spayed."
By Jozenda Fernandez
It’s not often that one encounters a nun in a hot pink habit driving a yellow pick up truck with "Hey, Sister, Fight the Filth" airbrushed on the side; selling products that feature such images as a woman’s legs spread wide with ears for where the vagina is supposed to be with the accompanying message: "Don’t Get Your Ears Pierced Without A Ring". It is even rarer to encounter a nun so frank about her stance and sexuality that she allows her visage to be coaxed out of seclusion by her sidekick, Lisa Bulten, to make appearances throughout the Chicago area to speak to the public about chastity, the mass marketing of women, and sexuality and people in general being consumed as if they are fast food.
The Pink Nun and Lisa Bulten both wear a brand of feminism that is often overlooked – instead of just working against the objectification of women or promoting healthy sexuality that encompasses homosexual relations, these self-described superheroes promote chastity and derided sexuality that is not within the sanctity of marriage. Perhaps some would consider their conservative stance to be incongruous with feminism, but a closer inspection of their products, propaganda, and personas would reveal that it is feminism in a different light. The Pink Nun circulates products and propaganda in the Chicago area that speaks of the transience and banality of casual heterosexual relations, although her message is also applicable to members of the lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer community. However, the Pink Nun is neither a Roman Catholic nor an official member of a convent (she is not associated with the convent of the Pink Nuns founded in 1896 in Holland by Arnold Janssen and Mother Mary Michaele). The Pink Nun was born out of Lisa’s MFA exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. As a nun, she epitomizes one of the most common symbols for female chastity and took it upon herself to alleviate the stigma of being a virgin.
While the Pink Nun considers herself a superhero complete with a comic book in development, Lisa does not consider her art to be conceptual, propaganda or traditional. Instead she considers it to be a ministry that employs art and her close association with the Pink Nun to promote her message of chastity and self-respect. Initially the Pink Nun encountered backlash from the public in venues like the Midwestern Christian festival Cornerstone, since her images can sometimes be interpreted as being an antithesis to her message. Others have also falsely assumed that her tongue-in-cheek approach is mocking chastity. Such an image is that of a slot machine lying horizontally with a woman’s legs and arms sticking out with the text "You are not a slot machine". This image is emblazoned on everything from t-shirts to postcards to stickers and buttons. Some have misinterpreted such images as a clever way to show a nouveau style of pornography. There are even some who assume that this particular image refers to gambling. In actuality, the Pink Nun’s intentions with such an image is to comment on how sex and the female body is being sold for a monetary and entertainment value. That casual sex is like gambling in that keeps on trying to score over and over again and rarely does one win. In addition to, the most obvious message is that a woman can choose to not be a slut – another orifice like a slot machine ready for insertion to achieve some transient carnal pleasure.
Lisa also concedes the seeming contradiction of the Pink Nun speaking out against the sale of sexuality with products that feature graphic images that can be deemed pornographic when taken out of context. She alludes to the 1950s objectification of women as either being housewives or sexpots with borrowed chauvinistic images. The Pink Nun shows how sex is being sold by selling sex herself, albeit a message of the ultimate safe sex: abstinence. Regardless of how adamant a consumer is about avoiding sexual purchases, it is nearly impossible in that it infiltrates all aspects of our lives – right down to fast food images of attractive individuals or sexy voices crooning over a piece of meat. Sex is fast food in that it is advertised as being a mass pursuit and requiem for living. People are easily consumed and spat out. The Pink Nun views sex as sacred instead of just a casual recreational activity. She considers the emotional and psychological scars that stays with rape victims long after the crime to demonstrate the power of sex, although this rationale does not encompass the aspect of the crime as also being that of an assertion of power through violence.
I was initially introduced to the world of the Pink Nun during her MFA exhibit last year when a high school friend and I were drawn to her hot pink exhibit. The exhibit featured products emblazoned with black and white images of the objectification of female sexuality taken to an extent that they are actual products within a product – a woman a piece of chicken with ears where the chicken’s opening usually is with a 1950s food inspector looming over it with the message: "You Don’t Need His Approval". I admit that I was drawn to her exhibit due to its potentially unsettling nature although I was not sure whether it was indeed a reaction to the rightwing religious movement or a stance against sexual commercialism. I was even unsure if her products were even for sale to the public in the first place. Although my stance on sexuality at the time was not as definite as hers is, I have gradually moved towards a more conservative stance especially as a personal reaction to the media taking sexuality, especially that of teenagers, to an extent where I feel more clothed in my 18 year old body than a 12 year old emulating scantily clad teen pop princesses selling sex as casually as soda.
Although I must concede that some might find her message to be limiting, especially in that it deals exclusively with heterosexual relations due to personal politics, or difficult to uphold since sex is everywhere, as a fellow artist and as a chaste individual, I find it refreshing that there are unabashed and vocal voices not only against the objectification of women and mass marketing of sexuality, but those of the other sexuality – abstinence. Hey, sister, keep fighting the filth!