MoveOn and Slut Walk and Rape Culture

[browneyedgirl65]

There are days when I want to just bash my head on the nearest brick wall. It started off with MoveOn’s moronically titled post about the Slut Walk protests: 10 Best Photos From This Summer’s Most Scantily Clad Movement.

This, people, is an illustration of what rape culture is all about. Even MoveOn fell into it, by choosing to play it up for

Comments

[browneyedgirl65]

Yes, I agree, and this goes back to the point I made about how men who are "the woman" in these sort of things being even more silencing for them. Women, after all, are expected to deal with this -- either be a good girl or a bad girl; there's a supposed "choice" -- nevermind that the victim may not feel like that's how it worked out. But the male victim doesn't even have that. Men just aren't supposed to be raped. So, no category for them, no voice, etc. It's still the same essential fallout from rape culture & agreed very ugly :(

[nicoli_dominn]

If there's one beef I have with that movement, it's the name. I like the motive and the intent - definitely not the white privilege embedded in the execution - but if I were at all associated with it, I'd want the name to go. What ever happened to great names like "Take Back the Night?"

[browneyedgirl65]

Actually, I would say the name is quite deliberate and an important point. "Slut" doesn't mean "rapeable" either. It's recognizing that any woman, any time, regardless of dress or location, may be called a "slut" (and therefore deserving of whatever she gets) which is what the demonstrations are about.

[nicoli_dominn]

I know the name is deliberate and I understand the motive behind it. I also understand that it does not equate to "rapeable." However, it is still a word that is still used as an insult primarily towards women to shame them when they are not sexually repressed (or oppressed) enough. And I know that awareness of this fact is the reason for the name, but I personally feel that "slut" is not a word I can reclaim as a woman. It was never mine to begin with; it was always "theirs." That's just my personal feeling, and it is my reason for not wishing to participate in the movement. That, and the fact that in many cities, SlutWalk founders have been blindly excluding people of color and making them feel invisible and marginalized. However, none of my personal squeamishness means I'm going to criticize someone else for being a part of the movement, or for expressing h/herself within the movement.

[browneyedgirl65]

Good points all -- although one thing I would say is that I don't see this as "reclaiming" the word, but rather as stripping the power abscribed to it. If the word slut becomes meaningless, do we not all win? I see that as totally different, for example, than reclaiming queer (because I *do* call myself queer), and even "bitch" is different. "Slut," though should become a completely meaningless word abandoned on the roadside of history :)

Didn't know that about the exclusion of POC in places. Arrgh.