Is the Mixed Response the Most Positive Outcome of SlutWalk? by Nick Bryans
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According to Wikipedia, the definition of a slut is a ‘pejorative term applied to an individual who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous’. It is a word almost solely used against women by, in general, puritans who seemingly wish to implement 1920s attitudes to sex, where men gallivant in speak-easies with ‘harlots’ and ‘floosies’, whilst their wife is at home looking after the offspring. We’ve had the hippy movement, we’ve had punk, we’ve even had Duran Duran; people, both male and female, are going to have sex with each other. Deal with it. But I digress, the point being that it’s a horrible word used by horrible people.
In an attempt to ‘reclaim’ the word, the SlutWalk movement began. Women marched through Toronto in various states of dress implicitly linked to ‘sluts’, in a protest against a Canadian police officer telling women that they should “avoid dressing as sluts” if they did not want harassment. This is also on the back of low conviction rates for rape cases, Ken Clark’s ‘Different forms of rape’ speech and a general opinion amongst certain people in society who feel that women who dress provocatively have themselves to blame if/when they are attacked.
Now first things first; rape is always, 100%, the fault of the rapist. A woman could fall out of a night club wearing nothing more than a belt made of featherlight condoms, and at no point is that some sort of fucking green light for men to ‘make their move’. If a woman waits till the last minute to not go through with sexual intercourse, that does not mean that there is some sort of implied expectance for her to have sex with a partner, as Conservative MEP Roger Harman seemed to think. This whole idea that women are partly to blame if they are attacked is so archaic that it isn’t worth dwelling much time on. As a man, I also feel that the way that men are purported as some sort of nymphomaniac, knuckle dragging, cave-man that can’t control their instincts when they see a girl in a short skirt, is just so unbearably sexist towards men. This may shock writers for the Mail and Express, but most of us have the ability to keep it in our trousers. IT’S CRAZY! I KNOW! But true.
5,000 women took the streets for London’s SlutWalk, from a variety of age groups and backgrounds. The response to SlutWalk was mixed. Laurie Penny writing for the New Statesmen commented that;
In Britain, the release of an official report declaring that girls are being too “sexualised” has coincided with parliamentary lobbies for young women to be “taught to say no”. Join the dots with police officers telling women that “no” is insufficient if they happen not to be dressed like a nun and an ugly picture begins to form. What we’re looking at is a concerted cultural backlash against female sexual liberation.
Whilst an editorial in Vice questioned why anyone would want to reclaim the word slut in the first place?
But, if I was a woman, I wouldn’t want to write “SLUT” on my tits to reclaim the term, I’d just want people to stop using it. People are always calling me a wanker on this website, but I don’t want to get the word “WANKER” written on my cock and march through central London, masturbating and chanting mildly witty slogans like: “I’m jerking off/But you’re the jerk off!” I just want people to stop calling me a wanker.
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However, Vanessa White, attendee of the Boston March, stated that:
‘For me it’s an attempt to reclaim the word ‘slut’ itself. Because once you reclaim it, you take the power away from it.’
In a very positive article on SlutWalk for the Guardian, Selma James felt that
In this sense, the SlutWalk was light years ahead of the 1970 women’s liberation march which made way for it. I was at both. Most of the women 40 years ago were a bit older and less grassroots than the SlutWalkers, taking themselves more seriously, more aware of their talents and skills, on their way to higher things.
However, perhaps the most interesting and controversial comments came from Victoria Coren. Coren questioned the viability of feminism being deduced to a question of outfits.
Feminism is too important a cause simply to become an issue about what women wear’
I don’t know that SlutWalkers are still campaigning about rape anyway. It’s become very confused. Many say they are protesting simply at normal (non-violent) men’s interpretation of skimpy clothes as flirtatious or provocative.
There have been noisy protests around it [The Playboy Club] and many of the protesters were also SlutWalkers. Their logic is about as watertight as that of the Canadian policeman. I am a feminist; I think feminism is about free choice, independence and solidarity; of course I believe that women should wear whatever they like and I say that only a hypocrite would march in hotpants one day and rail against croupiers in rabbit tails the next.
Mostly, I am sad that feminism is suddenly all about clothing. Maybe that’s the answer to what I find rum, what makes me suspicious: it feels like just another way to chat about fashion.
Coren comment’s seemed to echo those of others, that by putting so much emphasis on outfits, it detracted from the original message that started the movement in the first place. The minute that any movement becomes clouded by ‘consumerist’ impulses, if begins to descend it into disrepute.
Despite the differing verdicts on the viability and success of the march, one thing was universal; the implicit view that rape is always the fault of the perpetrator. And perhaps the varied response was the most positive outcome of everything. The original idea that started the whole movement is now merely a tasset acknowledgement to both people for and against the premise of SlutWalk. Rape is the fault of the perpetrator. End of discussion. The talk now concerns how best to further the idea of full gender equality. And surely, opposing views on how this is best achieved represents the success of feminism more than anything else? The ‘gender equality’ movement is now so varied, and with such different views. Women can no longer be boxed into to these established stereotypes that plagued them through the mid 20th century, and the ‘feminist’ movement no longer has the pejorative ‘man-hating cult’ reputation that people used to label it with. One can no longer treat women simply as a demographic. Sociological pontificating is now no longer the reserve of the rich and educated. More and more people are trying to take an active step to influence and alter things that affect them and their gender. Feminism is no longer seen as a qusedo-‘ten commandments’ where the viewpoints of every feminist could be gathered up and covered with a tea-towel, but a multi-layered and complex state-of-mind. I’m not saying that SlutWalk was the catalyst for it, but more that it was the clearest realisation of how evolved feminist movement has become. Maybe I’m being naïve, but perhaps the fact that so many have such positive and different things to say is the greatest success of all?
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“This whole idea that women are partly to blame if they are attacked is so archaic that it isn’t worth dwelling much time on.” I’ll probably be retiring from Slutwalk Central when this translates itself to the reality of womens’ experiences post-rape. We are not confused about what our remit is, but the Slutwalk movement has indeed highlighted the need for women of all shades of opinion to seek a focus and debate further where we are as women. I do get tired that many privileged women of the Press (who weren’t there on the day – and didn’t even report the existence of 14 speeches, preferring to concentrate on er, “fashion”) will keep banging on about what we are/aren’t, unqualified. So much for solidarity, eh? Perhaps a look at our website/Facebook pages will clarify our ongoing movement to place the responsibility for rape on the rapist and to support women in fighting their cases? We work closely with Women Against Rape, The English Collective of Prostitutes and the Black Womens Rape Action Project. We are first, foremost and always an anti-rape organisation and our focus is on the lot of rape victims and survivors.
I agree on some things and not on others, and one thing I’d disagree on is that the message was confused.
“The original idea that started the whole movement is now merely a tasset acknowledgement to both people for and against the premise of SlutWalk. Rape is the fault of the perpetrator. End of discussion. The talk now concerns how best to further the idea of full gender equality.”
If this was the end of the discussion I’d be hip-hip-hurrahing for the wonderful state of the world, but what people miss with the various messages that SlutWalk can express is that words like slut, whore ect are intrinsically linked with victim blaming. The way womens bodies and womens sexuality are viewed in society is linked to the way our society also victim blames, which is why in my eyes, they’re not seperate issues in the slightest.
All the time we simply ignore words like slut, they will still have power, they will still be used against us. I think what SlutWalk echos is how fed up a lot of people are with both victim blaming and slut shaming and how we’re ready to stand up to both of these things!
I do however love the way you summed up at the end! A very postive and new feeling in the air step for feminism is I think what a lot of people have gained from it all!