The act of taking is crucial. 2024, a year marked by backlash against feminist gains (from abortion restrictions to online harassment), saw a renewed focus on reclamation as not merely linguistic but physical. To take the pepper is to refuse the role of the good victim.
The instruction to “spin around” introduces a carnivalesque, almost childish joy. But spinning is also a vestibular assault. It deliberately induces dizziness, blurring the boundary between inside and outside, up and down. In a patriarchal visual economy, women are trained to stand still—to be looked at, to be composed. The spin breaks the frame. It says: You cannot capture me because I am actively disorienting myself.
In the online vernacular of 2024, this is “girlhood horror” or “weird girl art.” It shares DNA with the surreal memes of subreddits like r/redscarepod or the performance art of TikTok creators who film themselves doing mundane tasks in eerie silence. The pepper becomes a proxy for the white powder of cocaine, the dust of neglect, the spice of anger. The spin is the endless doomscroll loop.
