Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.
- Toni Morrison.
One of my biggest problems with how the media and some of the (I want to say annoyingly close minded) people who do not support the Slutwalk movement is that they have focussed on the word slut and the skimpy clothing. NOT the actual message behind it, which was that we need to put a stop to victim blaming. We did not miss the point of this march. You did.
Being there at the march was amazing, because there were hundreds of 'sluts' and 'friends of sluts' chanting for our (and I mean ALL women's) rights to be able to wear what we like and NOT be blamed for rape. The media uses language that blames the victim, so society does as well. SHE was dressed promiscuously, SHE was drinking, SHE has slept with a lot of people in the past, SHE is a slut, a whore, a skank, SHE was asking for it. Why is it rarely HE IS A RAPIST? We live in a society that tells us not to get raped. That if we do it must be our fault some how. That we weren't vigilant enough, that we weren't careful enough, that we were probably asking for it anyway. Rape is a crime of violence. I have heard this comparison been made: If a store is robbed, we do not say it was the owners fault for having all his goods on display, it is the shoplifters. If a person is mugged we do not say it is their fault for carrying a wallet, it is the person who robbed them. So WHY does a woman get blamed for her rape?
The truth is, that the majority (and that's a LARGE majority) of rape is committed by people who know the victim. Meaning that it has nothing to do with how you are dressed. A skimpy outfit does not mean that you are 'open for business to anyone with a penis' and the number of sexual partners you have had in the past does not mean that you have to say yes to every person who comes along demanding it.
I found this video on youtube of one of the speakers, Nicole Skews from Wellington Young Feminists' Collective & Rape Crisis: who put it very eloquently:
I would love to have video footage of more of the speakers, but that was all I could find online.
My favourite chant of the day was "However we dress, where ever we go, YES means YES and NO means NO" which is the point of the march. The signs said it perfectly, so I will end with some pics I took on the march and some links to go if you want to read what other people had to say:
Further reading:
http://theladygarden.org/2011/06/27/walking/
http://yestodayiamthankful.blogspot.com/
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.com/2011/06/slutwalk-stuff.html
And def. read: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/5186785/SlutWalk-takes-aim-at-rapists
