Event protests victim-blaming and slut shaming

[Mountain Girl]

Here's a link to the article: [link=]http://www.gazette.com/articles/women-138138-proclaiming-colorado.html[/link]

I wish I had known about this beforehand, I missed it. Basically a bunch of women wore lingerie in public to protest the idea that a woman's attire is responsible for inciting rape. Several participants also decried the use of the word "slut". The organizer of the event says the point was not that women should traipse around downtown in lingerie on a daily basis, but that a person's attire is not an excuse or an invitation for rape, assault, or abuse. I love love love the quote at the end: "A slut is someone who comes too close to the source of her power and is consequently to be feared.â€

I'm curious what FJers think of this. I know the fundies we snark on would have a conniption fit. But I imagine that some perfectly reasonable feminists might also not appreciate women waving their boobs around in the name of equal rights.

And now I'm laughing because this computer auto-corrected fundies to "fun dies". Awesome :lol:

[Evilbad]

I think it really drives the point home. I heard somebody say once that a woman should be able to walk around NAKED and not worry about being raped. I agree.

The idea that it's a womans' fault that she is assaulted because her skirt was too short or boobs too......boobalicious? is just disgusting to me. Never mind that the idea of women's fashion showcasing their bodies is really driven by what is found "Sexy" or "Appealing" to men, to then just be told you got raped because you wore those same clothes. It's a pretty nasty cycle.

[ladypuglover]

I'm sad that I didn't know about it and it was right there! Man, only a few miles away and my sister and I could have been showing off our slut clothes. Yes, I have sexy clothes too but prefer my frumpers. So these naysayers need to come up with something else because even nuns are being raped, it isn't the clothes, folks.

[patsymae]

As someone said, I think they were trying to drive the point home--rape is one crime where they almost always blame the victim. I had a colleague, when working for a very liberal newspaper, write that women shouldn't "let themselves be raped" and compared a woman being raped to walking through a park with hundred-dollar bills plastered on your head and being surprised that you were robbed. So even people who think they are free-thinking have this mindset.

It also frames rape as a crime of sexual desire and passion, when in fact it is just another assault with an unusual weapon, designed to show dominance either over women in general or, as in the case of wars or, say, ethnic or racially charged situations, men using the rape of women to show other men that they can do this to "their women.'

What angers me most is that women participate in perpetuating this myth. I think that comes out of fear. If she was raped, it was because she is a slut. I'm not a slut so I'll never get raped.

I was raped at 4 in the morning by someone who invaded my (locked like Fort Knox) home. I was quietly working on my computer by myself. I was also 56 and weighed 223 pounds at the time. So much for strutting my slutty stuff.

[deelaem]

*sigh* I love the idea behind this, but I don't think the lingerie was a good idea. I agree that it shouldn't matter what a woman wears, but the asshats that would be against this protest are only going to focus on the lingerie. I think there must be better ways to bring attention to the cause.

I'd love to see the word "slut" thrown out of all protests, unless it's to deride it. I read a lot of radical feminist sites, and believe me, the patriarchy loves the whole "Slut Walk" concept because it gives them a new excuse to dehumanize the women who participate in it. Women may know what they mean by calling it "Slut Walk", but sexist men will never see it that way. We do need to take those words away from them, but in my opinion it's not productive for us to "claim" them.

"A slut is someone who comes too close to the source of her power and is consequently to be feared.â€

There is great sentiment in this quote, but I'd change the world "slut" to "woman".

[geniebelle6901]

What would be even better is a Lady Godiva type thing but on Harley's...LOL!

[Elle]

I heard somebody say once that a woman should be able to walk around NAKED and not worry about being raped.

I've said that many times, including this forum. But I'm probably not the only person who's said it.

How a woman dress can get her attention, even if it's just a guy looking, and it's a bit ridiculous to say a woman should be able to dress sexy and go to a night club and shouldn't have to expect for guys to hit on her (though a woman should NEVER have to put up with a guy who won't scram when she says she's not interested), but NEVER does that give a guy the right to take what she isn't willing to give. A woman in a sex club has the right to say no, in a relationship, someone who is a prostitute, it doesn't matter. NOTHING gives someone the right to rape.

[fundyfunland]

I'm assuming the OP is referring to the SlutWalk. The walk was in response to an incident that happened at my school. Here's the part of the Wikipedia entry on it, b/c I'm too lazy to summarize:

"The SlutWalk protest marches began on April 3, 2011,[1] in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and became a movement of rallies across the world.[2] Participants protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman's appearance.[3] The rallies began when Constable Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto Police officer, suggested that to remain safe, "women should avoid dressing like sluts."[4][5] The protest takes the form of a march, mainly by young women, where some dress provocatively, like sluts (many do not). There are also speaker meetings and workshops.[6] Some objectors have remarked that this approach is an example of women defining their sexuality in male terms.[7]"

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlutWalk

I'm obviously repulsed by the police officer's comment, however I have several issues with SlutWalk.

a) The event & it's focus on being scantilly clad takes the emphasis away from "no means no"....no matter what!, to "women should be able to wear whatever we want, and we should be able to sleep with whomever we want"

b) the word 'slut', is never going to be a nice word. Why bother trying to make it our own?

c) Well, I just think this is all very sad. Here we've finally been able to mobilize all these women globally for an issue, which really hasn't happened in decades, and we're turning the focus away from the main issue of violence against women, in order to reclaim an ugly word as our own. Yikes! Imagine what we could actually accomplish, if all these women put their voices together against violence!

[Elle]

FFL, you bring up a couple good points. I didn't even think about how the original focus changed from no meaning no, to this idea that women should be able to wear anything without anyone even noticing (it was in response to the SlutWalk even that I ended up in a debate with someone who thinks women should be able to dress scantily and dance on table tops in night clubs without having guys whistle at them, while my stance was that if you go to a night club dressed in a manner that you know will attract attention and behave in a way guaranteed to get attention, then don't be surprised if guys notice, though this doesn't give the right to assault or rape, and she completely ignored how I said it doesn't give a guy the right to rape and went back to dressing scantily).

I have mixed feelings about "reclaiming" a word. On the one hand, it's an attempt to take the power out of a word. On the other, it doesn't really work. A cisgendered person can't use the word "queer" without raising eyebrows because there's still power in it. A non-black can't use the N-word. If a thin person uses the word "fat" to describe someone, it's wrong. If we women want to call each other sluts and not have it take offense, there would still be offense if men used it, maybe even more offense because those who "can't" use it are refusing to give it up, and so they're still retaining some power themselves.

And another word would just replace it anyway. Faggot for queer, monkey for the n-word, disgusting or lard-ass or something for fat. What happens when the word chosen is a word still used in other ways that isn't offensive? Eventually it can't be used. Of those three, how long before a the last two can't be used in their original ways? A faggot is a small bundle of sticks used to lighting fires, but woe to the person who uses the word in it's original way. So it happens that a benign word takes the place of another derogatory word and can no longer be used.

It's a nice idea, taking the power out of words, but the power it taken out within the person, not within the word.

I wonder if the SlutWalk didn't become a focus on words because it's a freaking no-brainer that NO MEANS NO, so there's really nothing to talk about there. There's no debating it. There should be no need to discuss it because there is no want to defend not accepting no as no. How do you discuss how 2 plus 2 equals 4? But you CAN discuss how 1 doesn't always equal 1 (mathematically it doesn't), just like you can debate and discuss the reclaiming of a word. And I think the name of the event didn't help. Not all women who are raped are scantily dressed. The name of the event itself focused on women dressed provocatively.

If none of this makes sense, please excuse me. I'm exhausted and should have been in bed an hour ago. 1am, 2am is just the only time I get without my kiddo awake, so is the one time I get to write stuff without being interrupted (typical posts is written in a few pieces because of interruptions).

[valsa]

I love both Slut Walks and taking back the word "slut".

Recently (as in, maybe the last decade or two) "feminist" has started to become an insult in even mainstream society (which has, unfortunately, become comfortable with a "benign" type of widespread misogyny) To the point that even a lot of young adult women who are ideologically feminists hesitate to adopt the label. On top of that, in some circles, "feminist" has always been a four letter word. However, I don't see that as a reason to give up on the word and continue to define ourselves by the narrow confines of what others dictate for us. This is also the reason I would like to see the word "slut" claimed.