Using slut as the flagship word for this new movement puts women in danger through giving men even more license to think about women in a way that suits them, and not as targets of violence and terrible social discrimination.
The global phenomenon that is SlutWalk makes its Australian debut on Saturday in Melbourne, with other walks planned for Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.
While I support all efforts to challenge violence against women in all its manifestations – my blog is a witness to the global level of that violence – I hesitate to join the marching ranks. I welcome any confrontation with those who would blame the victim in rape. No woman deserves rape or invites sexual assault. I support the basic intention of the march. But I fear it has become more about the right to be ‘a slut’ than about the right to be free from violence.
The walks were sparked by the comments of a Toronto police officer who told 10 college students: “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.”
This statement is based on the myth that the primary form taken by unwanted sex is: man on dark street sees woman with not much on, and attacks her while in the grip of uncontrollable lust.
If the policeman wanted to talk about risk factors, he should have talked about friends, lovers and relatives because the majority of perpetrators are those known to the victim. I support smashing myths about rape.
But I’ve been trying to understand the meaning of the slut walks before going into print with my views. I’ve found the explanations given about the meaning of the slut walk confusing.
Is it about mocking and sending up, or owning and embracing?
Some organisers and supporters say it’s about reclaiming the word slut, using it as a term of empowerment for women.
Some say it’s satire, a send-up, a mockery, about emptying the word of its power by making fun of it.
For Sydney SlutWalk organiser Samadhi Arktoi, “a slut is someone who enjoys sex”.
Another organiser, Lauren Clair, is also keen to reclaim the word “slut” as a source of pride, not shame. “I’ve spent my entire life being judged for my appearance and sexuality. I’m sexual, I have sex, I enjoy sex. I’m not going to be ashamed.”
The Australian Sex Party, organising the Brisbane event, says it is proud to embrace the word. “I like to wear tops that show my cleavage and show off my ladies,” says organiser Anne Watson. “If that makes me a slut, then I’m a slut.” . Sex industry spokeswoman Elena Jeffreys has been on Twitter with her “Slut and Proud” messaging.
Entertainment reporter Katherine Feeney is “proud to be a slut” too, saying it’s all about “inner sexual confidence”.
But another Melbourne organiser, Karen Pickering, bristles at the term and understands why many women don’t wish to embrace it.
“It’s a word I avoid, and I bristle when other people use it… Some people tell us they’re resistant to participating under that name. I ended up saying it was about the right to not be called a slut. But I do think that the more we use it, the more we empty it of its connotations.”
In ‘Sluts like me’ Lindsay Beyerstein writes:
Organizers told people to wear whatever they wanted. The message was: Who’s a slut? We all are. Or none of us are. And who cares? It’s a stupid, meaningless concept anyway.
“Slut” is just another way of saying “worthless” without having to come up with a reason. Little girls get called sluts before they even know what sex is. If someone calls you a slut, there’s nothing you can say to refute the claim because it never had any cognitive content anyway.
If ‘Slut’ is another way of saying worthless, then why state “we are all sluts” – and then say it’s meaningless? If it is another way of saying “worthless”, then it’s not meaningless – and why would we all want to identify as ‘sluts’ if that is the case?
So if any woman who has sex is a slut, we should embrace it and be proud of it, but have the right not to be called it. And actually it’s meaningless. Got that clear? Me neither.
The confusion is reflected in young girls asking on Facebook if they have to be “sluts’ to attend.
Using slut as the flagship word for this new movement puts women in danger through giving men even more license to think about women in a way that suits them, and not as targets of violence and terrible social discrimination.
If it is a word to embrace and be proud of, we should all welcome slut Facebook pages then, like this one I wrote about last year.
A number of men certainly seem to enjoy the term and are looking forward to the slut best-on-show parade. Some have posted on FB slut walk pages: “WE love SLUTS!!!!!” And men have apparently chanted the slogan at previous walks.
Owen C Bignell is looking forward to the Melbourne march: “I’ll be in too, if all goes to plan. Shouldn’t be too hard with so many sluts to choose from!!”, he posted on the Melbourne FB wall.
Slut walks marginalise women and girls who want to protest violence against women but do not want ‘own’ or represent the word ‘slut’. I fear mainstreaming the term even further will increase harassment of women and girls because ‘slut’ will be seen as some kind of compliment. The men chanting “We love sluts!” don’t seem to be picking up on any satire. Why would they? Porn culture reinforces the idea that all women are sluts.
As US anti porn author and activist Gail Dines, currently in Australia, says: ‘‘Men want women to be sluts and now they’re buying in’’
See also:
Expect no good from Slutwalk, Ruby Hamad
Feminism may be hard but slutwalk makes it harder, Maiy Azize
Slutwalk is not sexual liberation, Gail Dines
100 years of International Women’s Day: let’s end sexual violence, Kate Ravenscroft
Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work, Melinda Tankard Reist
Not rape, just boys acting up, Melinda Tankard Reist
Gail interviews on Jon Faine, ABC Melbourne
13 Responses
Slut originally meant a slovenly woman. To embrace the word in connection with sex seems to me to irrevocably align the two meanings – in itself degrading. I would object to the use of the word to apply to us generally.
As far as the walk is concerned two concepts must be separated. There is NEVER any excuse for physical force or threats to obtain sex. Sex should always be fully consensual. Dressing in any way does not ever imply consent to sex. That messages are sent by dress, however is undeniable. People in habits or burqua’s can expect to be spoken to or treated in a public area differetly from, for examle, someone in a clown suit collecting money. A person dressing in sexually exuberant clothes can expect sexually exuberant reactions. Tough! They have to wear that (excuse the pun). But it still provides no excuse for touching.
Sorry, girls, but to be called a slut is still an insult. And enjoying sex does NOT make a woman a slut. How stupid are some of you people?! Men are laughing at you while they enjoy gaping. Yes. They. Are. And I know women don’t have to dress like sluts to get attacked … but I’m sure it helps.
Men will buy into alot of things with any sexual connotation whether or not women do anything at all. They can produce it right out of their very own heads and we can’t do much about that. Even if it was called an ‘anti-rape’ march or a ‘stop victim blaming’ march, there may still be men calling things from the side-lines…especially these days when the word ‘rape’ it’self is used by the youth for just about anything. All you have to do is type the word rape into twitter to see that.
The media will focus in on anything with a sexual connotation too. But that’s not a bad thing in this case, it’s what’s grabbed attention, and got people talking about the issues that are usually hard to talk about. That just wouldn’t happen if they were called ‘anti-rape,’ or ‘stop victim blaming’ walks.
Personally I don’t give a flying toss about the word. It’s a word, and women are called many things, thought about as many things, and accused of being many things including being accused of causing a crime against themselves.
As a woman I feel it my duty as well as my choice to determinedly focus on the issue of victim blaming. There are many women out there who are determinined to focus on the negatives, and even join in with the voice of the authorities that accuse women of inviting rape, whilst still alleging that they do support the cause of stopping victim blaming…mentioning it in passing…whilst the rest of their articles are devoted to the word ‘Slut’… this of course also being blamed on women for using the word in the first place to initiate a positive and strong campaign. In this way it becomes highly questionable who is reinforcing the stereotypical slut. It’s your choice.
There are alot of men who do actually get what it’s all about and are marching in earnest, to raise awareness of victim blaming to support women against the violence they incur at the hands of men. Credit where credit’s due, not every man loses total control over their lustful urges, or their awareness of women as people when they get an erection. They are fed up with being perceived like that due to the violence of other men. So they are raising their voices too and I really applaud and support that. It is an insult to them as well as other women on the march to be thought of by women themselves as stereotypical beasts and sluts.
Some women just seem utterly determined to undermine the positive and won’t get on board seemingly because they find the word slut more offensive, dangerous, confusing and wrong than they find rape and the fact the woman is often blamed and thought of as a slut anyway, even if she was raped in her own home, by a stranger intruder.
Whether the word slut can ever be claimed (why re-claimed? Was it ever ours in the first place?), remains to be seen. These things evolve, they are not decided on on a given day by a show of hands.
Many of us, will be marching in seriously ordinary clothes. Some people will be having alot of fun with costumes and expressing themselves the way they want to. Pretty much like any other protest march. I hope that you will join us.
This is symptomatic of the way we are repeatedly mis-sold sex and sexuality by the mainstream media. We are told that sexual confidence involves dressing provocatively, having casual sex with multiple partners and talking openly about these exploits (just look at Sex and the City). Young girls are led to believe that this is what ‘sexy’ looks like and that this is how they must act if they want to become sexually empowered women. Words like slut are demeaning to women and encouraging women to ‘reclaim’ them is simply buying into the idea that it is ok to use derogatory terms do describe ourselves as long as we are being ironic. I believe that sexual promiscuity is often a result of low self esteem in girls and women who struggle to value themselves in a society that repeatedly undermines their confidence by encouraging them to strive to attain an unattainable ‘ideal’ physicality. Telling them that it’s ok to be a ‘slut’ is simply validating their lack of self worth and playing right into the hands of the kind of men who seek to take advantage of these vulnerable women.
To say we are “reclaiming” the word suggests we once owned it. It suggests it was originally a word embraced by women, with a positive and empowering meaning, but it was stolen from us and its meaning gradually corrupted until it became a hateful, shaming word. But that’s not the case, is it? It’s not a word we’ve ever owned or embraced, so of course no one can decide what it’s supposed to mean. It’s a word that has always been used to objectify, blame and shame women; to treat them as f*ckable objects who are always panting for it. Why SHOULD we want to embrace a word like that? Rather than fighting objectification, we’re willingly participating in it and then desperately running around trying to turn it into something positive. Seems to me that’s like decorating our prison cell and then saying we’re empowered because we chose the paint colour ourselves.
@ Lyn, thank you! I’ve been hearing a lot about how men will be so pleased with themselves that a bunch of women are conforming to their oppressive fantasies by banding together under the term ‘Slut’ walk. However, most men I have spoken to about SlutWalk seem to have an understanding that the protest is about rejecting the idea that a woman’s clothes, sexuality or behaviour in some way warrant or excuse sexual assault. I find the quote from Gail Dines – that “men want women to be sluts” a gross generalisation that is insulting to men.
All the judgment and negative connotations, in my opinion, are coming from women, who are telling me what is and isn’t appropriate ‘feminism’. What is and isn’t ’empowering’ for me. As though they somehow have a better idea of what constitutes liberation for women, than what women themselves decide. And yes, the old “I agree that women never deserve to be sexually assaulted, BUT they need to understand that if they dress like that and call themselves sluts, men will look at them like objects (and hence they are bringing the assault upon themselves)” comments are rife, sadly demonstrating the very reason why SlutWalk has come about.
I find these articles which focus on the word ‘slut’, thus detracting from the other, important, feminist issues raised by slutwalk to be condescending. I do not appreciate being told (by men – or other women) what words I can and can’t use to define my sexuality.
I can identify with the slutwalk – not because I don’t respect myself, or am unaware of patriarchal, misogynistic constructs, but because I appreciate that a bunch of women were gutsy enough to stand up against slut-shaming and victim blaming, and have some fun whilst doing it. Sure beats lamenting woman kind’s doom, discussing all aspects of sexuality as though women are victims of oppression (rather than people who actually have agency, choice, and varied preferences) and arguing with each other over language.
SLUTWALK >>>>BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY….THE SEX PARTY….WHAT A CROC….ALL those women who participated in GOOD faith have been HAD…hung drawn and quartered as SLUTS by the MEN of the Pornography trade….be FURIOUS….you should be….
I’ve been struggling with the whole issue of SlutWalk. And the very movement seems to be going through something of an evolution.
It is hard for anyone to deny that how you dress and how you act is never an invitation for sexual assault, rape or any other unwanted attention. However much some people think it might be so. The original premise of SlutWalk is a good one, and important one. And some of the reactions (mostly from men) signify exactly why it is needed.
I am not sure where and when the “reclamation” aspect arose.
There has been a fair bit of criticism (justly so) at the movement because of the impact it has on trans-gendered and inter-gendered people. It has been seen as a middle-class white woman’s thing. And it is hard to escape this. It is far easier for women to “reclaim” the word slut if it is not routinely used to describe their entire group.
But still, the basic intent of the thing is something that needs to be championed. Perhaps there is a need to separate the two aspects. Have a walk that says “Dress is not an invitation”. And if there are people who want to champion the “reclamation” aspect, then good for them.
Slutwalk is truly about protesting against victim-blaming. I’ll be attending our local one on that basis. I consider this to be consistent with my personal mission to convince other men that they need to change their behaviour, their views on women. As a member of a group who are so routinely the oppressors, I consider it my personal responsibility to bring about change in my fellows.
The word ‘slut’ is a lot older than this movement, as we all know. Do people really think parading about in bad taste clothes from the 1980s is going to change society’s perceptions of that word? It has taken 1000 years for the word to earn its reputation, and these silly parades will not undo that.
I will not participate in this nonsense, and my sons and daughters have decided not to either. They, along with me, see it as simply another deliberate degradation of women in our society. No thanks. I want nothing to do with it.
I fear that the Slutwalk has put the focus on the use of one particular derogatory term, at the expense of challenging the attitudes and culture which lead people to use that word in the first place. I’d be happy to protest against victim blaming, but anyone who seriously thinks that walking the street in their underwear to ‘reclaim’ the word ‘slut’ is really going to reduce sexual violence against women has got to be kidding themselves.
I’m with Gail Dines concerning the issue of women’s right to be called a ‘slut.’ Slut is a male created sexualised insult and it is used by men to justify their right to commit sexual violence against women. After all one can’t rape a ‘slut’ can one?
Yes the men are laughing at us women because we have stupidly fallen for one of the oldest male supremacist tricks and that is ‘sluts’ supposedly exist and yes women have the right to be called sluts. Only being a ‘slut’ apparently doesn’t mean men have the right to rape us women! What??
Many ,many women are called sluts and such name-calling has no relation whatsoever concerning individual women’s sexuality – rather it is a blanket term used by men to maintain male sexual domination and male sexual control over all women.
‘Sluts’ are supposedly those women and girls who have been subjected to male sexual violence and calling them ‘sluts’ ensures that male accountability is always ignored because men must never be held accountable for their crimes against women must they?
Yes men love sluts because many men consider all women to be either ‘virgins or sluts’ we are ‘sex’ and nothing else whereas men are more than ‘sex’ they are the default humans and hence claim the right to define which women are and are not ‘sluts.’
So instead of attempting to reclaim a misogynistic sexualised insult which we women never created in the first place we need to focus on the real issues and that is holding men accountable for their sexual violence against women. Reclaim The Night has never attracted much malestream media attention because RTN marches don’t focus on attempting to reclaim the women-hating word ‘slut’ – rather it focuses on holding male supremacist society and men accountable for justifying and condoning male violence against women.
By the way if we believe ‘sluts’ do exist then we need look no further than labelling any male who engages or claims to be sexually promiscuous to be a ‘slut.’ After all male supremacy tells men it is fine for them to have innumerable female sexual partners because men are never ‘sluts’ are they – no men supposedly need regular sexual access to women and girls in order not to spontaneously combust. But women and girls are ‘sex’ and nothing else which is why that male created women-hating term ‘slut’ was invented in the first place. It neatly keeps the focus away from the illogical male sexual double standard.
So who benefits? Why men of course because this march confirms their misogynistic and women-hating stance that women are indeed ‘sluts’ because we are ‘sex’ and nothing else.
Remember boys slut really means a person who is sexually active and hence is apparently sexually immoral and given being sexually active is de rigeur for men then clearly many men are sluts. That is if we believe sluts even exist.
well,now porno hijacked this too…..
as far as i know,it was organized by amna,a professor….can´t remmember where i read that,unfortunally.In any way,this phrase says everything:
“As US anti porn author and activist Gail Dines, currently in Australia, says: ‘‘Men want women to be sluts and now they’re buying in’’
sorry,i meant ” by a man”