Protest "SlutWalks" are planned in Auckland and Wellington next month as international protests grow following a Canadian police officer's remarks about how woman should dress to avoid sexual assaults.Seriously? They could not come up with a better name for this protest?
In Boston approximately 2000 protesters marched yesterday some holding signs saying We love sluts! and Jesus loves sluts, Associated Press reported.
The protest movement, sparked by a Toronto police officer's remark that women could avoid being raped by not dressing like "sluts," came to Boston after advocates saw similar events - largely organised through Facebook and Twitter - pop up in Canada, England and other parts of the US
In January, a Toronto police officer told a group of university students that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" to avoid being raped. He later apologised.
The officer who made the comments, Constable Michael Sanguinetti, was disciplined but remained on duty, said Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash.
The New Zealand "SlutWalks" are planned for June 25 with organisers telling the Sunday Star-Times they are rallying "to place the blame for sexual assault where it belongs: on the perpetrators".
"We are promoting the idea that women should be able to dress how they like without having to wonder if they will be blamed if they are attacked."
slut (slt)
n.
1.
a. A person, especially a woman, considered sexually promiscuous:a derogatory or insulting termb. A woman prostitute.2. A slovenly woman; a slattern.
I used to say that the only difference between a slut and a whore, is that the whore has brains - at least she gets paid.
Would i ever want to be part of a group of people that are calling themselves a derogatory name, and announcing to the world that they should be proud to be considered sexually promiscuous?
No.
While i agree that the blame for all sexual assaults should be placed on the perpetrator - i also believe that women should use a certain amount of common sense when it comes to this matter.
Last year, i went out one night with a group of friends. One woman that was with us that night was - i am sorry to say this and i know i will offend people - dressed like a hooker. I mean even when i was a hooker, i would not have dressed in as skimpy and short and practically see through of a dress as she was wearing, or in the platform hooker heals that she was wearing.
It was not a good look. I was actually embarrassed to walk next to her.
Throughout the evening she proceeded to get drunker, and drunker. She spent the whole evening dancing, and quite happily getting felt up by every man within an arm's length of her - without complaint, and with a big smile on her face.
Her behaviour was embarrassing. Maybe i am a prude these days. Maybe i would not have noticed her behaviour as much, had i been drinking as well. I know i am not the only one who was bothered by her behaviour though, because another woman that we were with pulled her aside at one point in the evening and told her off - basically told her that she was asking for trouble.
I think the reason this other friend of mine did this was because, this woman has made a big deal of having been the victim of rape. It seemed odd that someone who had been the victim of a sexual assault, would be so careless about her behaviour and the potentially dangerous situations that she gets herself into.
Should the intoxicated men who thought all their Christmases had come at once, because a woman who had practically nothing on was all over them on a dance floor, be blamed for thinking - yeeehaaaa here is a slut, and i am going to get me some of that?
I know that there is never an excuse for sexual assault. I know that the woman never asks for it, and blame should always be with the perpetrator...but isn't it also a woman's responsibility to use common sense, and take all reasonable steps that any prudent person would take in order to keep herself safe?
This protest is saying, that women should be able to behave however they want, with no consequences for their own actions. It is saying they can be sluts all day long, every day if they want and that should just be fine with society.
Take the sexual assault, rape, and illegal activity out of the equation and i have to wonder what the reaction would be to a protest by men announcing that they are allowed to behave however they want with no consequences for their actions, would be.
Please - give this protest a more dignified name - if for no other reason than the fact that it is just plain offensive, and suggests that all rape victims behave like the woman i have described above.
They don't.
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3 comments:
You seem to be missing the point Jacqui. The women staging the protest are deliberately satirizing those who call women sluts. Appropriating the name slut and using it a badge of honor doesn't belittle the feminists or their protest but ridicules those who use 'slut' in a pejorative way.
This is the same as when the African Americans appropriated the name 'nigger'. A similar approach was taken by atheist feminist blogger Jennifer McCreight when she organised her boob quake protest against a Muslim cleric who claimed ' western sluts' caused earthquakes.
I understand what you are saying however i still don't agree with it.
I also don't agree with the use of the word nigger.
I can't think of a situation where either the word slut or nigger is funny...but i guess we all have our different senses of humour.
In my opinion, this is telling people that it is ok to be a slut, and that there should be no consequences for that kind of behaviour.
Sexual behaviour is a matter of choice but there are always consequences.
Do women really have to lower themselves to this police officer's level in order to make this statement?
Veronica they may be intending to satirize those who call women sluts, but they are not taking the offence away from the word in doing so. The word nigger is a perfect example of how "appropriating" the word to take the power from the racist who uses the insulting term does not work; the same offence is still taken when it is used in a derogatory manner or when non-blacks use it in a non-derogatory way. Also the slut walk belittles the importance of taking basic safety measures to minimize the risk of rape.
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