Cleveland has joined a list of cities from around the globe that plan to host a rally in honor of women’s inalienable right to sluttiness.
It’s called a Slut Walk, and the point of the August 27 endeavor, say organizers, is to “take back” the offensive word. Slut Walk demonstrations have been sparked the world over in response to one of the more notable gaffes in the history of Canada.
Back in January, a Toronto police official was addressing a group of York University students after a rape occurred on campus. The good constable helpfully noted that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”
While the policeman was left to ponder his odds of ever getting laid again, women from London to Seattle cued the outcry. Enter Casey Schroeder, a Case Western Reserve grad student and host of the feminist program Voices and Choices on WRUW radio. Upon learning that Cleveland had no such plans to march, she took on the job herself.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2011.
Ahhh, the proverbial double standard, using sex appeal to one’s personal advantage while at the same time extolling the feminist’s belief of true equality. There are no problems with a woman being either a feminist or a slut…just don’t try to be both.
It’s not a double standard Kenrmer. How many times have you heard, “Oh, she was asking for it by …”. That’s the entire point of the Slut Walk. A woman should be able to wear a cute little skirt (because she feels pretty in it and for no other reason) without having to worry about getting assalted. Predators are just that. They control their own actions and to blame a woman by saying, “She was asking for it by wearing that skirt” to me, is just ridiculous.
If you’re not for sale, don’t advertise. Women can feel pretty and sexy without looking like she’s for sale.
This goes beyond dress. It doesn’t matter how successful a woman is, how many degrees she has, or what she wears- the moment a man decides to objectify her as a sex object then, by no fault of her own, she becomes a “slut”. This is a societal problem that doesn’t just happen on the street, but takes place in the boardroom, in our public schools, in the grocery store, on television- all around us everyday! We need to recognize that the way we socialize our children breeds this misogynistic view that a woman – due to her inalienable traits as a women- is deserving of various forms and degrees of sexual harassment and assault.
I will go along with the “she asked for it defense” for rape on the day that men admit that they are so mentally deminished that they are unable to control themselves when faced with a desirable woman….and agree that like an unruly animal they should be kept iin chasity and on a leash!
It’s never the victims fault! If a man had his car stolen do you think he would allow the defense attorney for the theif to use “well he shouldn’t have had such a desirable car” as a valid reason for stealing it?!
Way to go Casey and Thornn and the other wonderful people I’ve had the privilege to talk with at the meetings. You guys are working so hard, and I’m so grateful. <3
Thank you, Donna and Kenrmer, for so generously proving the need for an outcry like Slutwalk. This is just one of the things we are protesting – women’s bodies as commodities.
*I* own my body, and you don’t get to touch it without my permission. Period.
kenrmer, what about the elderly who are raped and beaten in their own homes. are they asking for it?
Kimberly, read my comment again. If you purposely dress “slutty” there will be a preconceived impression about you. If you dress like a “thug” there will be a preconceived impression about you. If you dress like a “bum” there will be a preconceived opinion about you. We all draw attention to ourselves based upon appearance. Its the strongest way to set a first public impression. Its your option on how you want to be perceived to others. “Pretty” or “attractive” is one thing, “slutty” is another. If you don’t know the difference then ask a close friend for an opinion on your clothing choices. Just don’t complain if you dress like a hooker and walk down the street, that you get propositioned.
Rape is NEVER justified. But we ALL must take SOME responsibility for our decisions on selecting an apprearance. The right choices will attract a positive response, others will invite headache and trouble. The choice is yours.
Oh, and Thorn Jones, any smart guy would be VERY selective where he takes a desirably owned car. We wouldn’t park it in a driveway overnight or take it into questionable neighborhoods. It’d be locked and secured away to thwart thieves because we KNOW that leaving it someplace unattended is INVITING TROUBLE. So we don’t invite trouble.
Knrmer, sadly this is true, we have to be aware of our location and try to take steps to protect us.
HOWEVER that in no way excuses the rapist or thief of his actions. He didn’t HAVE to take advantage of the car being in his shady neighborhood any more than the rapist HAD to rape a woman just because he liked the way she was dressed or her being in a location where he could assult her!
And it is the use of just such a defence by society, law, and a large majority of the public that is what Slut Walks are trying to bring into focus.
Utill the victim is no longer blamed for what is done to them we need to keep bringing this to everyone’s attention.
The victim is not to blame, the person who assults, rapes, steals what is NOT THEIR’s and NOT FREELY GIVEN IS THE ONE AT BLAME!
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck….. Just because I can cruise through Longwood with a $25,000 diamond necklace, with $50,000 cash in a Maseratti don’t mean it’s a good idea.
Maybe it’s not a “good idea” but would you REALLY stand for the legal defense of the person who takes it from you telling you It’s “your fault”?
Now think about reporting the theft to the police and having them grilling you about what you were doing in that location, why you were dressed however, what your past history is , and why didn’t you fight him off.
No matter what you answer, you will have a large group of people in law enforcement think you “asked for it” and dismiss your complaint out of hand. Then when the story gets repeated you will be put under a microscope and everything in your past will be made to somehow have bearing on the current crime.
And that is another problem, don’t be a sexually active woman, or just one that actually enjoys sex!
You know THAT means you cannot ever say NO once you have said “yes”…to ANYONE!
So far you are just a prime example of what the Slut Walk movement is trying to communicate; No matter WHERE we are when the attack happens, no matter HOW WE DRESS, no matter if we have a sexual past, even with the person who rapes us (husband, BF, past affair, it doesn’t matter), no matter if we have been at a party, no matter if we didn’t physically fight you to the death, NONE OF THIS GIVES ANYONE THE RIGHT TO RAPE US!!!
I’m not saying I don’t agree with you Thornn, but what I am saying is that don’t be green and think just because you have the right to do something that everyone else will respect that right. Let’s use common sense. No one asks to be a crime victim, but to think it won’t happen to you is kinda stupid. You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times, that’s basic human instinct. In layman’s terms, don’t get caught slippin or yo ass gon get got.
Sexual predators prey on women who look “easy” because most people, including women, will think that she was asking for it. It’s been like that since the beginning of time. Is it right? Hell naw!, but that’s how people think.
Fast Tech 97, do you REALLY not see that you are Making my point for me?!?
This is just what the slut walk is trying to change:
“Sexual predators prey on women who look “easy” because most people, including women, will think that she was asking for it. It’s been like that since the beginning of time. Is it right? Hell naw!, but that’s how people think.”
I;m not “green” I have been involved in various efforts for almost 40 years. I am sometimes pissed off and our Puritan roots working against women. On one hand we are bombarded with images of women as sexual objects; selling cars, beer, what have you, and then are told that only “bad” girls are actually sexual. Good girls do not engage in sex before marriage, and then when married they don’t really enjoy it, but “Hey!, wear all this make up, sky heels, and attract attention to your self…but when you do, expect to be treated like a sexual object and don’t complain if you are assaulted, cause you brought it on yourself by being desirable.
That’s one of the double standards used to punish women for being women. We are set up for a fall by society.
But as most of us know Rape is not just about sex, or a grandma or a 5 year old would never be a victim..and they often are.
I was 3 years old when I was raped. Ever since then I have been quite aware that life is a crap shoot and if someone bigger , stronger or crazier than me wanted to assult me it could happen no matter how I was dressed or where I was.
I have learned to be aware of my surroundings and take percausions.
What I have REFUSED to do is live my life like it’s an apology for being female!
I WILL dress however I want, go out where I want and not back down just because some man, somewhere, might find it an invitation to attack me…and BLAME me for it!
How weak are men to even TRY to blame someone else for their actions? You would correct your child when they try to do this type of refusal of responsibility, why is it reasonable in so many minds when an ADULT MAN trys to blame someone else for his actions?!?
Like I said before, that’s the way people think. You agree that crusing through Longwood in a Maseratti, with $50,000 in cash and a $25,000 diamond necklace isn’t a good idea, but don’t I have that right? And if I got robbed, would most people including the police and most criminals, ask what were you doing in that area with that stuff? Wouldn’t you ask that same question? That’s the double standard you speak of. I agree with you on so many levels, but I don’t think many people will take the “Slut Walk” serious.
By the way, I’m sorry to hear what happened to you. I hope they fried the bastard.
They found him…he was my father.
I invite you to come out to the walk.Watch if that is all you feel like doing. Yes there will be many that thinks it’s a waste of time, but my hope that it will also offer a bit of hope for a positive change for those that need it and if all it does is start some interesting conversations like we have been having here I will count it as worth all the effort.
East Tech, think about what you’re saying for a moment here. Comparing property crime to violent sexual assault is not only insensitive, it’s logically unsound. Your $50K in jewels and nice car you can leave at home, you can take out an insurance policy on them. I, on the other hand, cannot leave my body at home under lock and key, and even at home I am not safe. Most rapes are committed by someone you know – husbands, boyfriends, family members, friends, acquaintances. The myth of the stranger in the dark alley is in place simply because it provides an easy out for rape apologists (the “she was asking for it” or “she should have known better” camp) and people who are uneasy with owning up to the actual motives behind rape – which are NOT that the rapist was sexually attracted to the woman, although this can be a component part (normally in date rape – which really should just be called rape as it is the most common kind of sexual assault), but that the rapist decided it was okay to violate someone in the deepest way possible without their consent. Go ahead and do some research on this if you actually believe clothing, physical appearance, and sexual proclivities are an actual indicator of who will be raped.
The only thing you can do to avoid being raped? Never be in the same room with a rapist. Good luck with that, though.
Carmen, so you’re saying that victims of rape deserve more sympathy and compassion that victims of robbery? I didn’t know that crime victims had a pecking order. So who’s at the top, murder victims or rape victims? If I was robbed at gunpoint and pistol-whipped for $20, that’s less degrading and humiliating than being raped? What if I was shot and killed because some douchebag wanted my Jordan’s? I guess I shoulda wore my Iverson’s that day huh? What kind of bullshit is that? You’re making the same excuses that the so called rape apologist are making. A crime is a crime and a victim is a victim, whether it’s murder, or robbery or rape.
I have a scenerio for you. If a man who has H.I.V, knowingly infects 10 women, who’s fault is it? What if it was a woman who knowingly infected 20 men with H.I.V? Who’s fault is it? Supposed I was one of those men who got infected, wouldn’t I share some of the blame for sleeping with her without using protection? What if I was married and having an affair with that woman and somehow infected my wife, who’s fault is it? What if my newborn daughter contracted H.I.V from my wife while she was brestfeading and unknowingly carrying this virus, who’s fault is it? Wouldn’t I share some of the blame, or because I slept with a woman who was knowingly infecting men with H.I.V, I claim to be the victim? Some of that shit would be my fault.
Rape is horrible and detestable. I can’t imagine how terrible it makes victims feel. Anybody who rapes a woman, man, child, baby or elderly person is the most vile, disgusting and filthy mofo on the face of the earth and should be squashed or exterminated like the parasite it is. Which is why I think people should avoid becoming victims of this tragic crime, including refering to themselves as “Sluts.” If you put yourself out there like that, don’t get upset when people treat you like that.
Way to completely miss the point. I suspect, on purpose. But I’ll push that suspicion aside and attempt to reply in good faith.
You insist on arguing with the assumption that a persons choice of clothing contributes to their likeliness of being sexually assaulted even after Carmen explained that it doesn’t. It doesn’t. No, really. That’s just not some opinion of mine, that’s fact.
As Carmen said up-thread, 73% of victims are assaulted by a non-stranger. That’s an overwhelming majority. In the case of women victims, the contributing factors just don’t include whether she was wearing a skirt or a potato sack. They just… don’t. Despite that, an overwhelmingly common reaction to hearing of an assault is to ask what the victim was wearing. If her clothes don’t fit the blamers idea of ‘asking for it’, then… then what? A blamer would retort: “Well, she must have done SOMETHING wrong.”
I know that it’s a comforting assumption to hold onto, that as long as the women in your life follow the ‘rules’ of ‘appropriate attire’, then they will remain safe from such horrific assault. It’s common for women to hold onto this notion too, no matter what contradicting evidence is presented – believers of this myth will clutch it tight to their chest, screaming “I CAN’T HEAR YOU LA LA LA”. Until they, or someone close to them, is assaulted… and it isn’t stranger who became overwhelmed with lust upon glimpsing her upper thigh. It’s a known and trusted individual, who violates that trust in the most gruesome way imaginable, even though she was wearing baggy slacks and a tshirt.
It would be super awesome if choice of clothing could prevent sexual assault. It would! Nobody would EVER be assaulted. Alas, men and women are assaulted everyday. In all different types of attire. Muslim women, covered head to toe, are assaulted. Women who wear large, baggy clothing are assaulted. Because the perpetator doesn’t make his choice to harm based on attire.
But victim-blamers make their choice of whether to excuse the rapist and let him off easy based on what his victim was wearing. It’s just easier that way, I guess. Unless you’ve been raped. Then you have to take the blinders off.
That’s what we’re here to do with Slutwalk. We’re taking the blinders off. Because as long as they’re on, sexual assault will continue to be an epidemic in this country. Rapists will roam free to re-offend, and victims will be silenced.
We aren’t going to stand for that anymore.
Because, you know what would REALLY be Super Awesome? If people who harm other people were actually held accountable for their actions instead of getting a (literal) Get Out Of Jail Free card from people who don’t like the ugly reality.
I’ll tell you what Tech, being raped is more degrading and humiliating than being robbed at gunpoint and pistol whipped. You obviously have never been raped or you wouldn’t make such a statement. I’m glad that you have not had that experience. There are no words to describe how completey horrible and violating it is. I would rather be pistol whipped thank you very much. Again it seems that you have missed the point. THE VICTIM IS NOT TO BLAME! I was 10 when I was raped and it continued for 3 years. It had NOTHING to do with what I wore and I was NOT to blame!!!
Rapists are disgusting. The harm they cause to their victims is almost always irreparable. If it were declared a federal capital crime — at the minimum for serial or multiple-conviction rapists — I would not shed a tear for the worthless cretins. The victims are NOT to blame, not even in the slightest.
If they want to wear the label “slut,” they are more than entitled to it. Thugs, emos, kinksters, and every other fashion-conscious creed can do as they like. No one is injured by the sight of a clothed human form, however attractive, unattractive, or in-between it may be.
Enjoy your event, ladies. Don’t listen to the naysayers. I hope my wife joins you — she looks amazing in slutty clothes. 😉
Rapists are disgusting. The harm they cause to their victims is almost always irreparable. If it were declared a federal capital crime — at the minimum for serial or multiple-conviction rapists — I would not shed a tear for the worthless cretins. The victims are NOT to blame, not even in the slightest.
If they want to wear the label “slut,” they are more than entitled to it. Thugs, emos, kinksters, and every other fashion-conscious creed can do as they like. No one is injured by the sight of a clothed human form, however attractive, unattractive, or in-between it may be.
Enjoy your event, ladies. Don’t listen to the naysayers. I hope my wife joins you — she looks amazing in slutty clothes. 😉
Ladies, I just want to say how much I apprectiate the succinct, educated, reasoned responses to folks who don’t want to get it that I have been reading. It’s wonderful to have you out there making intelligent conversation on a subject so serious as rape, violence. So long as we have people who continue to make excuses for inexcusable behavior, we will have inexcusable behavior. I know the legal system is very slow to respond to the revictimisation of victims of sexual violence, but it has started in some places. Thanks for working to raise awareness!
This sat. is the Slut walk in cleveland! Over 1,000 people signed up to attend.
come on out and be heard! We Have Had Enough!
You know something ladies never mix it has bad consequence, for example if start with a beer and finish with whiskey not good outcome and if drink and drive bad consequences will happen and the list goes on. So never mix business with pleasure unless pleasure is your business so be smart and don’t invite horrible things into your life be safe and protest on things that even though is pretty and makes you feel the same, it could have consequence, so don’t be targeted by predator know the signs and never walk alone and yes stay pretty but alive good luck.
Ladies, let he or in this case she who is free of prejudice and sin cast the first stone. Please read my comments completely before you respond. I am not making excuses for “inexcusable behavior.” What I’m saying is that in this free country called America, people think that they can do, or act, or say, or dress in any way, without consequences. All responsible people know there is cause and effect. If you choose to dress or act that way, know that there are consequences. That’s doesn’t mean that you are to blame, or that it’s ok, but it does happen. Perception goes a long way.
By the way, if I was raped by a woman, would any of you believe it? Probably not, because of the perception that men are stronger than women, or whatever else you might believe.
The argument that dressing slutty causes rape is as specious as dressing slutty for a parade to protest it.
And not just because nobody needs to dress like a slut or thug to be appreciated.
Believe me, young guys in prison don’t walk naked from the shower to their cells because they can. They’re extremely modest if only to avoid attention of any kind. Rape in prison or on the streets is not about sex but about the vicious thrill of power over another person. To a rapist, a nun in a habit is “just asking for it” by being all holier than thou.
Let the organizers of this march decide why they’ve chosen “dressing slutty” as an empowering action rather than an activity that will not lead to being objectified. To me it almost appears that the march has nothing to do with sex and a lot to do with power gained by taunting.
I seriously doubt that I’ll ever be raped. I’m ugly as sin and I’ve lifted weights for over a decade. Yet I would no more remove my shirt in public than wear a slutty tight black mesh tank top. I exercise for health and energy, but I want to be taken seriously for other attributes.
Maybe the organizers could have the marchers dress normally and let the message be the focal point. After all, many women didn’t dress like sluts or even leave their homes when they were raped. And it’s probable that some men will want to support your cause as well without tugging into daisy dukes.