Enough with the Hating on Slutwalk
If it doesn’t work for you, fine.
If you think the only reason ANY WOMAN gets called a slut, regardless of race or social standing, is because she has done something to deserve it. Fuck you.
The word slut is used to shame and silence women, and a myriad of reasons are given for that shaming and silencing, including race, ethnicity (black women are more sexual, Russian girls are easy, all want a marriage visa, etc…), dressing provocatively or not dressing provocatively, flirting, not flirting, your body shape or lack thereof (big boobs, “fat girls are desperate and easy ,” etc…).
Slutwalk Toronto, I think, the location wasn't labeled.
SLUT IS A MEANINGLESS WORD!!!! It has no definition. NONE. It means nothing outside of its utility as an agent of oppression of ALL WOMEN. If you think that any woman, again, regardless of race, class, ethnicity or anything, escapes that word, you’re wrong. No one escapes it. Not when someone decides that’s what you are, completely and utterly independent of reality.
We are all sluts, and none of us are sluts.
Very few of the feminists I know are ecstatic with the mainstream media’s coverage of this, because they (the Mainstream Media) are focusing on the cute, white, thin, mostly blonde girls in scanty outfits, instead of all the older, racially diverse, fat to skinny women and men marching in t-shirts, jeans, jogging clothes, the clothes some of them were raped in. This is not the fault of the Slutwalk, this is the fault of the Mainstream Media.
It is also the fault of the Mainstream Media that the message of the Slutwalks is getting lost and perverted. Women are not marching for the right to be sluts. Women are marching for the right to have their rapes taken seriously by the police. So that when they report a rape they don’t have to endure a million questions about whether they’d been drinking, what were they wearing, what kind of underwear did they have on, are they sure they want to ruin this nice young man’s life over a “misunderstanding?”
Over on MSNBC, who you would think would know better, they had the headline “Slutwalks put provocative message on the streets.” Really? The message that no woman deserves to be raped, and if she is raped, deserves to be taken seriously by the police is a “Provocative message?” Really?
For some people, I guess it is.
Polimicks 
Well it’s provocative because it would challenge people to actually admit that there is still an issue with sexism. At least that’s what I think they mean /pretending to give MSNBC a chance.
I posted this on the Seattle SlutWalk page and was more than a little annoyed that I got a very few responses:
Here’s the deal people: We already have the right to sleep with whoever we want to. The SlutWalk isn’t about the sexual revolution, that was decades ago. It isn’t about “the right to call ourselves sluts.” We live in the United States of America (and Canada and Scotland and England and and and and…), we have the right to call ourselves whatever we want.
The SlutWalk is about victim blaming and slut shaming. Any woman can be called a slut for conflicting reasons. It’s about women (and men) saying “No, rape is rape, no matter what I may or may not have done!” It’s about women (and men) saying “A sexual woman (or man) is not an invitation for unwanted sexual advances.”
The media is focusing on the cute white girls in small outfits but the fact of the matter is that most of the participants at a majority of the SlutWalks have been wearing regular clothes. There were pajamas there. Jogging shorts. Business suits. People wore the clothes they were raped in or clothes similar to what others were raped in.
The Slut in SlutWalk is important but it’s not for anyone’s right to call THEMSELVES that. It’s because ANY woman can be a slut. Did you ignore the guy who made lewd comments? You’re a slut. Have you slept with three guys and a girl at some point in your life (not at once)? You’re a slut. Did you wear a skirt that someone, anyone deemed to short? You’re a slut. Did you go on a date with a friend’s friend’s ex boyfriend? You’re a slut. Did you wear short shorts at the gym? You’re a slut. Are you black? You’re a slut. Are your boobs “too big?” You’re a slut. Are you too skinny? You’re a slut. Did you chastely flirt with a guy you don’t know? You’re a slut. Did you look in the general direction of “another woman’s man?” You’re a slut. Did you get raped? You’re a slut. … I think you see where I am going with this? ANY woman can be a slut for any number of arbitrary reasons that the accuser decides.
It might sound silly but that one word and others like it can ruin a girl’s life. The wrong people decide you’re a slut and that means they no longer have to respect you. And that is not ok. Also? No woman gets raped because she “dressed like a slut,” we need to make that a loud and clear message. Because that attitude should have been abolished in Jesus’s time.
If slut is going to stay in our vocabulary let’s make it a positive thing, people.
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And my other new rant about the SlutWalk:
What is with all the posts that go “I am totally behind this! No woman deserves to be held accountable for her rape! Blah blah blah some lip service to the cause blah blah blah But come on people, we need to be realistic here! Protect yourself! Be careful with what you wear, where you go, and a host of other useless things that won’t prevent rape!”
HOW IS THIS NOT BEING A PART OF THE PROBLEM?!
I even saw someone say (and this is a direct quote, I’m copying and pasting but adding caps)
“In response to your question – yes, we believe there are ways to reduce one’s risk of being sexually assaulted, but given the nature of sexual violence we don’t think dressing a certain way is realistically one of these. Without reiterating the whole conversation you’re referring to, the short answer is that we feel learning a martial art, carrying a weapon, STAYING IN GROUPS, and KNOWING THE SIGNS OF A POTENTIAL AGREESOR are going to do you a lot more good than dressing conservatively.”
What? Seriously. WHAT?! Wait?! There are signs?! I can tell who a potential aggressor is?! Holy shit! Guess we just solved the rape problem, maybe we should tell the world!!?
And yeah, those women should travel together for their own protection. It IS for their own good after all… maybe we should make a law or something that keeps women from going out alone at night. For their own protection.
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Thank you both. All of this is wonderfully said, and I only wish more people read it.
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