The Irish Times
Monday, February 13, 2012
Slutwalk shows clothes not the problem
CLÍONA SAIDLÉAR
In a rape culture, no matter what women are wearing, we are all sluts
I ONCE MET a man who had an unusual interest in elbows. His interest was of the lustful bent! So, does that make my elbows indecent and if so what should I do about it? Well, if the time and place was appropriate and I was so inclined, I could roll up my sleeves and angle my elbows to their best advantage (if there’s such a thing). On the other hand, if I were not inclined, should I hide my elbows in case he catches a glimpse and misunderstands? Should I feel shame that my elbows are out and on view?
Of course the answer is I have no control over how he reads my elbow “signals”. He cannot know my intentions. If he wants to move beyond guesswork he will have to ask me.
Seems straightforward except that at every turn in our society we are told that guesswork about consent to sexual activity is not only possible but sufficient, that under certain circumstances a person can be assessed to be “up for it” and that if someone wasn’t in fact “up for it”, they were at least “asking for it”.
If we start there, then how are we to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account? After all, was it even their fault?
The movement Slutwalk was initiated when a police officer in Canada expressed the view that how others define you, makes their choice to commit a crime against you your responsibility or at least in part your fault. Protesters in Canada took to the streets to challenge this.
Slutwalk protested the meanings being given to women’s dress and behaviour, the right and legitimacy of others to define any woman’s meaning, and the use of this meaning to explain and understand sexual violence.
Defining who is and isn’t a slut in a society with epidemic levels of sexual violence, the vast majority of which is perpetrated by men against women, girls and boys, was named as a political act; a political act that supports and facilitates a society with a high tolerance for sexual violence – a rape culture.
In terms of sexual violence, where rape victims are blamed and shamed, quizzed and judged about their behaviour prior to the rape, meanings matter. The meaning given to a woman’s dress and demeanour matter when the whole world is judge and jury of a crime committed against her. Slutwalk came about because someone stood up and said, “This meaning hurts and I’m not okay with it.”
If we believe that sluttiness is a cause of rape, this belief acts as a form of control over women. Indeed if we believe sluts are asking for it, are we sanctioning rape as legitimate punishment for women who do not conform?
What is it that women must do to conform? The “rule” Slutwalk rails against is essentially women’s “wrongdoing” of being sexually desirable to men. Given the cornucopia of taste we are capable of, to someone, somewhere, every one of us is a slut; under these circumstances all women break the rule simply because they are female.
The problem isn’t the specific clothes, the problem is that the meaning of your appearance is defined by another and your own intention and meaning is irrelevant. Slutwalk simply says my clothes are not my consent, and certainly not your excuse.
At the heart of Slutwalk is a public and defiant NO to being defined by others, particularly in relation to our “responsibility” in our victimisation. For those who try to define who the sluts in Slutwalk are, unfortunately the point is in a rape culture, no matter what we are wearing, we are all sluts.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0213/1224311683063.html
That's why he thinks an intoxicated woman is responsible for her own rape. But, she didn't violate the sexual assault law, if she didn't do the penetration.
