On August 10th, 2013, I had the pleasure of participating in
SlutWalk DC. When I had first heard about
SlutWalk as a movement, I felt compelled to eventually participate. Needless to say, I was not left disappointed. The experience was overwhelmingly positive and empowering, and the organizers
clearly worked really hard to make it as inclusive as possible. I was particularly impressed by this, as (to
my understanding) the reason why the SlutWalk NYC movement dissolved was due to
a lack of inclusivity. They covered a range of experiences through their
chosen speakers, who included a male survivor, a transgender survivor, a woman
who survived (repeated) rape at the hands of her alcoholic husband, a Muslim
feminist, and an African American woman discussing how traditional feminist
theory was not inclusive of the African American experience – it was genuinely enlightening
and the organizers did an amazing job trying to create a safe space for as many
people as possible. I had briefly spoken to the organizers about my confusion regarding the martial arts
demonstration (which I interpreted differently than was intended) - then, when a
presenter was late, they invited me to come up to the podium and share. In short, it was amazing and I am so glad
that I chose to be a part of it. Since
the SlutWalk movement itself is often fundamentally misunderstood and,
therefore, controversial, I feel the need explain and defend it, especially
being as my own SlutWalk exploits have been so extraordinary.
First things first - what is SlutWalk?
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To directly quote the SlutWalk DC Facebook Event,
"The goal of "SlutWalk" is to bring together people of all genders, ages, professions, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and economic statuses to create a dialogue and bring an end to attitudes that normalize victim blaming and slut shaming and to ultimately put an end to rape culture."Some participants choose to dress provocatively, or only wear underwear, or even go topless for the sake of proving a point. This point essentially being that, even if someone is the sluttiest slut who ever did slut, it STILL is not okay to victimize them - the issue of dress/”sluttiness” is deemed irrelevant and is removed from the equation in regards to placing blame. While those who know the story behind how the SlutWalk movement started completely understand this and take it within context, others may misinterpret the manner in which some choose to protest, which is precisely why this movement merits explanation.
The initial SlutWalk took place in 2011 at
York College (in Ontario, Canada) as a direct reaction to a comment made by
Constable Michael Sanguinetti. As he
addressed the issue of campus rape, Sanguinetti stated that,
“I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this, however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”
This attitude is reflective of many misconceptions of our popular
culture, and to hear this attitude (once again) being expressed by someone in a position
of legal authority is an indication of how deeply entrenched these social
attitudes truly are and, therefore, how urgent it is that we address them. In order to adequately and honestly address
the issue of rape (and start the process of ending the silence, shame, and
suffering familiar to all too many survivors), we need to start with the truth.
As a society, we’ve come to conceive of rape as something that occurs
as a result of strangers hanging out late at night in dark alleys (with weapons,
of course). So we’ve created this whole
set of ways to “protect” oneself from getting raped – don’t go out late, don’t
drink, don’t do drugs, don’t wear revealing clothes, don’t talk to strangers, etc…but
these “rules” have little to nothing to
do with the realities of rape. For
survivors of rape, their attackers were much more often neighbors and friends
than strangers – in fact, about 73% of sexual assaults were committed by someone
that the victim knew*. When we look
at survivors under the age of 18, the number drastically jumps by twenty
percent – 93% the individuals who were victimized as juveniles knew their
attacker*. We caution women against
going out late at night, but (in 2001) only 23% of rapes happened between midnight and 6am –
43% were committed between 6pm and midnight, and 33% were committed between 6am
and 6pm*. More than half of all
rape/sexual assault incidents occured within a mile of the victim’s home…a full
40% took place in the victim’s own home*.
Furthermore, only 11% of rapes involve the use of a weapon, and
attire generally doesn’t play a role in victim selection*. The fact that we cling to these “safety tips,”
despite the fact that our “understanding” of rape has little to no basis in reality,
places the responsibility for the attack on the person being attacked. As a direct result of these misconceptions,
many survivors are made to feel that the trauma that they suffered was somehow
not “legitimate,” and our culture of victim-blaming facilitates the belief that
the entire thing was somehow their fault.
To dig just a little deeper, let's slap another graphic on here and think a little bit about the word "Slut" and the manner in which it's generally used....
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While I acknowledge that, like any movement, there may be elements of
SlutWalk that may be flawed and/or misguided, I do believe it to be successful
overall. Essentially, we are using
Sanguinetti’s own words against him to not only stand in solidarity with every
survivor who has ever been labeled (or been silenced by the fear of being
labeled) as a “Slut,” to start dialogues about victim-blaming and rape culture,
and to address the common myths surrounding rape and sexual assault in our
society.
Admittedly, I’ve put off writing this entry for several weeks, not only because
this experience has been so emotionally charged for me that it was hard to
coherently gather my thoughts, but also because of the harsh nature of the
criticisms against those who chose to participate in the movement. There was one blogger in particular, whose life accomplishments are evidently limited to sharing the same last name as a (defeated) presidential candidate from 5 years ago, who wanted to make sure that everyone knew that
SlutWalk was nothing more than a bunch of angry radical feminists who
apparently believe that all men are constantly “objectifying” them with their “male
gaze.” He then proceeded to mostly post
about nipples, though, to his credit, he does also mention butt-dimples. Also, he wants to make sure that everyone
knows that a lot of the protesters were ugly by his standards, and, “10% would have made the
grade without benefit of serious whiskey consumption.” He then concludes by chastising a rape
survivor for not pressing charges.
Scrolling down, we are treated to a bunch of comments by people who have
zero understanding of what feminism or the SlutWalk movement is about – as an added bonus, the blogger himself makes sure to put the phrase “date rape” in
quotes to trivialize it, and goes on to postulate,
“Should we excuse (and thereby encourage) bad decisions and unrealistic expectations by women? Or, if our purpose is actually to prevent rape, shouldn't we view this as a teachable moment and say DON'T BE GETTING DRUNK! STOP HANGING OUT WITH CREEPS!”...So we have victim-blaming, a dismissal of feminism as “man-hating” coupled with blatant and deliberate objectification, assorted rape myths perpetuated, misunderstandings galore….In short, the necessity of this movement has just been proven by one of its harshest critics. Cool story, brah. Tell it again.
I've also come across a fair number of people who simply express confusion, and say something along the lines of, "what's so empowering about dressing like a slut/calling yourself a slut?" And my answer is as follows:
The
empowerment does not come from wearing certain clothing or labeling
oneself. Instead, the empowerment comes
from the act of not giving a single modicum of faecal matter about the labels
that might be bestowed upon oneself by society, because you know that no label in the whole
world excuses predatory behavior. The
empowerment comes from starting and participating in dialogues about rape
culture and victim-blaming. The
empowerment comes from dispelling common social myths about rape and giving the
proverbial middle finger to the Madonna-Whore Complex that runs rampant through
our society. The empowerment comes from
ending the silence and the shame that comes with rape and sexual assault,
providing for ourselves a safe forum in which to speak out, telling our respective
truths, and beginning to heal. THAT, my friends, is what is so empowering about SlutWalk...
*note: all statistics provided are courtesy of R.A.I.N.N.
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