Campus Reform: A student at Florida State University (FSU) has become an Internet sensation for her rap videos and artistic works about menstruation, rape culture and feminist issues, all funded by the school’s grant money.
Senior Lena Weissbrot found inspiration for her rap video, “Garnet & Gold,” following the alleged mishandling of rape allegations against FSU’s star quarterback Jameis Winston.
According to the Huffington Post, a painting Weissbrot created depicting “Winston on a throne receiving fellatio from a fraternity brother, while a woman with the Heisman Trophy—which Winston won—assaults a nude version of him,” went viral in 2014. The video is Weissbrot’s follow up.
Weissbrot received a $4,000 academic grant and was the recipient of FSU’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Award her sophomore year for her 50-page digital creation of “ Maybe She Likes It: A Web Comic Exploring Internet Technology and Gender Equality,” which uses nude images to discuss female body issues, gender equality, and the depiction of teen models.
Weissbrot’s work features sexually erotic displays, “misogynist-undertones,” and frequent images of menstruation to combat the historical male-instituted taboo of feminine functions.
“She’s doing almost graduate-level work,” Carrie Ann Baade, a professor of painting at FSU and the grant work supervisor told HuffPo. “Frankly, she’s doing work that’s more interesting than most graduate-level work. She’s the right artist to be responding to outrageous and scandalous trends in culture that should be addressed.”
Weissbrot also created a flash game called “ Fuck Everything,” because of her belief that video games primarily aim to serve male interests. The goal of the game is to make it through a gendered protocol and ultimately have sex with a nude girl. Weissbrot included a 70-page thesis further explaining its purpose.
“As a professor, we’re all having to meet this generation and accept them for who they are, and understand what it’s like to have an identity that’s really quite virtual,” said Baade. “[Weissbrot is] addressing a lot of experiences she had growing up on online sex chat rooms and having an avatar, and not feeling as powerless as women did in the past. She has a lot of sexual ferocity.”
Other feminists have been critical of Weissbrot’s artwork, claiming she portrays the movement as “man-hating” through her images of severed penises.
“In art, there’s this understanding that it’s separate from reality,” Weissbrot told HuffPo. “People definitely read into things a lot.”
According to Baade, Weissbrot has the largest body of work she has seen in her 14-years of teaching; however, she says that the senior is able to work quickly once inspiration strikes.
Weissbrot made a spectacle of the tragic shooting at University of California, Berkeley by student Elliot Rodgers—who posted a chilling video on YouTube prior to his attack, explaining his utter disdain for the women who had denied him during his college years. Weissbrot posted a video responding to Rodgers, mocking him and rephrasing his words to address rape culture and street harassment.
“It’s strange to see how people talk to you as a girl,” said Weissbrot, who claims the majority of her material comes from observing the college social scene. “It’s more prevalent at frats, but also just going out to parties and clubs for the first time. You become hyper-aware of these sexualized gender roles. The attitude is like, there’s no reason to talk to someone of the opposite sex unless you want to have sex with them.”
Weissbrot is a member of the Art Students League and has been featured on the Dean’s and President’s lists. Despite entering her last semester of college, Weissbrot is not sure what she wants to do professionally, but says she hopes to continue to produce “pretty weird, progressive content.”
On Lena’s bio page it says, “Weissbrot hopes to attend graduate school or pursue rap”. Good luck with that!
DCG