Slutwalk: because you're not allowed to rape sluts either

[penny7b]

It’s not often that I actually agree with Catherine Deveny, but she’s summed this one up quite well.

For those who are unfamiliar, Slutwalk started in Toronto, Canada, on January 24 2011, a representative of the Toronto Police Force advised a group of university students that: “ women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”.

Comments

[miss_madb]

Yeah, I think a huge part of the dissonance that leads to the subconscious programming that promiscuous or overtly sexual women deserve to be raped is this idea that if a woman is actively looking to pick up (at the absolute extreme of behaviour that can be cited as providing "justification"), then she should accept and settle for any attention she receives; that she has so right to discriminate between suitors. The idea that an openly sexual woman becomes public property - if she is genuinely out for sex (or a no-strings-attached kiss, or flirtation, or heavily sexualised dancing), then she is morally obliged to accept and submit to any response, from any person, and that if she dares to try to be choosey - to reject any interest, or to change her mind at any point about any interest she's accepted and/or reciprocated - then she's somehow denying her unwanted suitor a rightful and just reward that she's obliged to provide.
The fact is, it is perfectly reasonable for a woman to be on the prowl for a sexual liaison, but not necessarily want to have that sexual liaison with you (random guy). It is also perfectly reasonable for a woman to just want a chat, or just want a flirt, or just want a dance, or just want a kiss, or even just want some heavy petting, and not have any moral or physical obligation to do anything futher, ever. It is perfectly reasonable for a woman to initially be enjoying the progression of physical events, and then change her mind for whatever reason, and call a stop to things. This also applies to men with women (as men do also get raped; though the statistics are lower for female-male sexual assault, a male victim tends to face easily as much, if not more, victim blaming and trivialisation because "he must have enjoyed it, or she couldn't have done it" or "men are stronger than women, so he could have stopped her if he'd wanted to"), women with women, and men with men.
I don't think we'll be able to break the rape culture until we can get it through our heads as a society, en masse, that no-one owes anyone else sexual interaction, and that sexual interaction is not something that it is possible to "deserve".
Certainly, rape culture is myriad and pervasive, and there's far more to it than this one problem, but I believe the core of this particular facet - that it's, if not acceptable, then at least "not as bad" to sexually assault a clearly sexually assertive woman, because she wanted it/deserved it (what is this "deserve" crap, anyway? Anyone who justifies sexual coercion as a righteous punishment is carrying some even more worrying ideas than your basic Madonna/Whore dichotomy) - is that however far we've come, sex is still largely viewed as something women give, and men take, and any woman who dares to reject or rebel against that power structure is asking for trouble, and thus undeserving of public sympathy and having her sexual autonomy, as defined and protected under the Law, respected. :-/

P.