Harlot Overdrive

Blogger Drag0nista is of the opinion that the organisers of the SlutWalk movement “are grievously wrong in encouraging others to dress in a sexually provocative manner whenever they want.”

If they had encouraged others to dress in a ‘sexually provocative’ manner, she may have a leg to stand on, however, what Drag0nista has failed to understand is that this clearly isn’t the case. Are there going to be people there in ‘sexually provocative’ clothing? Maybe. Have they encouraged that? Quite the opposite. For one thing, it’s the end of May in an already bitingly cold and wet Melbourne, and you can expect some attendees will exercise common sense (like every other day of the year) and dress in weather-appropriate wear. For another, wouldn’t it defeat the purpose of the message if they were to actively encourage participants to strip down? The message SlutWalk sends, by the way, is not ‘I want to be as close to naked as possible and you all need to suck it up.’ but rather, ‘no matter what I wear, it does not give anyone the right to assault me, nor blame me for that assault should it happen.’

She suggests that SlutWalk does a disservice to young women who are striving to be taken seriously in our schools and workplaces. Specifically, she suggest “The sad truth is that a woman shouldn’t dress like a slut if she wants to be taken seriously or treated as an equal.”

To that I must ask, why aren’t you taking them seriously and treating them with equality? Why are you passing judgement on someone based on their choice of dress? And what defines ‘slutty’ attire anyway? If you flick to ‘slut’ in the dictionary – you’ll find there actually isn’t any rulebook on how to ‘look like a slut’. The term is so arbitrary it would almost be laughable, if it weren’t so damaging.

And if you aren’t doing the slut-shaming and victim-blaming yourself, Drag0nista, why are you so permissive about a culture that does? Why should we all sit back and say “society thinks an IQ level is related to length of skirt or heel, which we know is inaccurate, but whaddya gonna do?” or, “society thinks willingness to have sex is related to length of skirt or heel, which we know is inaccurate, but whaddya gonna do?”

To be silent any longer is to do our young people a disservice. To allow them, and their children, and their children’s children to grow up in a world where they are shamed, unreasonably judged and blamed is to do them a disservice. To allow them to be told that; when it comes to rape and sexual assault, they must shoulder some of the blame when it happens to them; especially if they wore a short skirt, had a drink or two, or had a little sex in the past, is to do them a disservice.

To quote Jacyln Friedman at the Boston SlutWalk, “Instead of distancing ourselves from those among us who are targeted as sluts, lest we get caught in the crossfire, let’s stand together today and say, if you use the word slut as a weapon against one of us, you’re using it against all of us. If you shame one of us, you will receive shame from all of us. If you rape one of us, you will have to answer to all of us.”

I don’t know about you, Dragonista, but I think that you are not at fault if you are raped. You are not to blame if you are sexually assaulted or harassed is a powerful thing to teach our young people.

And for their sake, I will not be silent any more.

SlutWalk Melbourne will be held on Saturday 28 May, 2011. Other SlutWalks around Australia are listed on SlutWalk Australia