According to Jessica Valenti in her excellent piece for the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/slutwalks-and-the-future-of-feminism/2011/06/01/AGjB9LIH_story.html – seriously, go read it), Slutwalks have not only gone viral and international, they may very well be the future of feminism as young women march to reclaim a word that represents an identity but also defuses that word in what I would suggest is much the same way that gay and lesbian groups reclaimed the power of the word queer.

The movement began when a group of young women (and men, the focus is on the women of the movement but there are men as well) were deeply shocked and offended by a police officer who gave a talk at their university and said that if young women would not dress like sluts then they might not get raped (the officer was reprimanded but not disciplined for his remarks which are tantamount to blaming the victim) . . . the sentiment so shocked the women that they began organizing a demonstration ostensibly to take back the word slut as an identity but really to hit home that one should NOT be blaming the victim for sexual assault.

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of places where the victim of a sexual assault is blamed. In Asia where I live, most rapes are not reported as women fear bringing shame upon their families. When I first moved to Taiwan, there was a string of taxi rapes in which taxi drivers would kidnap and rape young women and then take nude photos of them and threaten to send the photos to their parents if they didn’t pay money and keep their mouths shut. Most cases of frottage here are not reported and most women actually endure the shame of the molestation on buses and trains rather than bring public attention to it. Thankfully, there are a few exceptions (such as the young woman kicked her assailant and forcefully brought him to the police in an arm lock) but women are still generally victims, and silent at that.

It is very important to keep in mind that yes means yes and no means no and attractive or even risque dress is NOT an invitation.

Certainly, women shouldn’t be cockteases . . . purposefully inciting arousal and then pulling back . . . but . . . even then, a man should have some control. If you’re naked in bed with a woman and she changes her mind and says no then you get your ass up and go take a cold shower . . . sure, it’s okay to resent her but it ain’t okay to rape her without explicit consent . . . seriously. Of course, that’s an extreme case . . . but a very real example.

Of course most women are not cock teases. Some may dress what others consider to be provacatively but most do not do that as an open invitation to rape . . . they do so because they wish to be attractive and they wish to feel good about themselves and that’s okay.

Naturally, the idiots who blame the victim of a rape are still thinking of rape as a crime of mere sexual arousal to the point of lack of control . . . but . . . first, most men still have a very large degree of control over their behavior when sexually aroused and any man who is so sexually aroused by a woman in a miniskirt and fishnet stockings seriously needs to be seeking counselling as that’s really fucked up . . . second, rape has very little to do with the actual sex, it’s more about power and control and hatred, either of the particular woman being raped or, more likely, of women in general. To blame women for a sexual assault is to say that women are mere objects.

Slutwalk demonstrations have gone viral to a degree and more and more events are occurring internationally. I doubt we will see a slutwalk in a place like India soon where in some areas women in slacks have been gangraped by groups of conservative men who consider women dressing so provocatively – yes, slacks or business dresses – an affront to their religious beliefs or culture; but even there the Pink Saris movement is gaining ground (http://www.bittenandbound.com/2008/11/24/pink-sari-gang-gulabi-gang-photos-and-video/) – unfortunately, sometimes with violent results. Certainly, Slutwaks like their predecessor Gay Pride Parades are playful while hammering home a message. Yes, some folks are scandalized by the idea of the beastie but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

For more information, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/slutwalks-and-the-future-of-feminism/2011/06/01/AGjB9LIH_story.html, and http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20110508/boston-slutwalk-110508/, and http://www.pedestrian.tv/arts-and-culture/news/slutwalk-hits-australia-/43319.htm, and http://www.lingerieinsight.com/article-706-slutwalks-come-to-london/, and http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/04/dallas_slutwalk.php.

Support your local Sluts today.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com