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I've been reading up on intersectionality critiques of slutwalk lately. There is also a critique up ("Slutwalk vs. Ho Strolls") from Crunk Feminist Collective referring to racialized historical conceptions of "purity" and "chastity", black women's struggles against words like bitch, ho, etc and the politics of reclamation in LJ debunkingwhite.
Harsha Walia has a piece up on her analysis and participation in Toronto SW:
Slutwalk: To March or Not to March
Slutwalk - in its slick branding - runs the risk of facilitating the dominant discourse of ‘liberated’ women as only those women wearing mini-skirts and high heels in/on their way to professional jobs. In reality, capitalism mediates the feminist façade of choice by creating an entire industry that commodifies women’s sexuality and links a woman’s self-esteem and self-worth to fashion and beauty. Slutwalk itself consistently refuses any connection to feminism and fixates solely around liberal questions of individual choice - the palatable “I can wear what I want” feminism that is intentionally devoid of an analysis of power dynamics.
Historically, this has come at a great cost to low-income women and women of colour who bear the brunt of institutionalized sexism - from lack of access to childcare and denial of reproductive justice to stratification in precarious low-wage work and disproportionate criminalization. In the post 9/11 climate, the focus on a particular version of sex(y)-positive feminism runs the risk of further marginalizing Muslim women’s movements who are hugely impacted by the racist ‘reasonable accommodation’ debate and state policies against the niqab. This marginalization has, at least in part, been legitimized through an imperialist feminist discourse that imposes certain ideas of gender liberation and perpetuates the myth that certain cultural/religious identities are inherently antithetical to women’s rights.
According to Nassim Elbardouh, a community organizer and Muslim woman who grew up in Saskatoon, “Though I support the tremendous effort, I didn’t go to Slutwalk because rather than focusing on lack of consent in sexual assault, there seemed to be a message that I have heard since I was a young girl - that I am only a feminist under the White gaze if I dressed and behaved in certain exposing and forward ways. People need to realize that being ‘scantily clad’ is not the only patriarchal excuse that victimizes women. Sexual assaults against Muslim women are often minimized in our society because Muslim women are perceived as repressed, and therefore in need of sexual emancipation. I would much rather have attended a ‘Do Not Rape’ Walk.”MORE