Guyana SlutWalk?

Aug 07, 2011 Editorial

Several weeks ago, PNCR and APNU’s presidential candidate David Granger was asked by a reporter how he viewed “older men who seek out girls under the age of 18 for sexual relations.” In attempting to offer a nuanced response, the ex-Brigadier alluded to the early socialization patterns of Guyanese men and then offered that “provocative” costumes and dancing by some young girls could be “begging for trouble” from “excited” young men.” To his credit, he emphasised he was “not blaming women.” He was lucky he did not precipitate a “SlutWalk” in Guyana.
Last January, addressing a forum on crime prevention at York University after a series of violent assaults, a Toronto policeman advised: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” The remark caused outraged women to organise the first “Slutwalk” in their city in April. Very quickly, the event was duplicated in cities around the world – seventy to date and counting –as far away as India, Brazil and Australia. The organisers obviously had hit a chord in women but as to exactly say what that chord is, there has been and continues to be quite a debate.
The original organisers were protesting the notion that the imperative to prevent rape is still placed on women, who are told to modify their behaviour in order to prevent assault. Rape, they assert, is an act of violence by men against women: the focus must be on convincing men that women are not simply objects for their sexual gratification. SlutWalkers want to drain the s-word of its misogynistic venom and correct the idea it conveys: that a woman who presents herself in an alluring way is somehow morally bankrupt and asking to be hit on, assaulted or raped. What has been controversial has been the insistence of the protesters in claiming the label of “sluts”, dressing up in underwear and fetish gear while marching through city streets with signs such as “It’s My Hot Body, I Do What I Want,” and chanting slogans like “yes means yes and no means no.”
One opposing view – to the choice of dress – was well articulated by a feminist writer in the New York Times: To object to these ugly characterizations is right and righteous. But to do so while dressed in what look like sexy stewardess Halloween costumes seems less like victory than capitulation (linguistic and sartorial) to what society already expects of its young women. Scantily-clad marching seems weirdly blind to the race, class and body-image issues that usually (rightly) obsess young feminists and seems inhospitable to scads of women who, for various reasons, might not feel it logical or comfortable to express their revulsion at victim-blaming by donning bustiers. So while the mission of SlutWalks is crucial, the package is confusing and leaves young feminists open to the very kinds of attacks they are battling.
The use of the term “Slut” has also earned some disfavour. As summarised on Wiki, feminists Gail Dines and Wendy J Murphy have suggested that the word slut is inherently indivisible from the Madonna/Whore binary opposition and thus “beyond redemption.” They say: “Women need to find ways to create their own authentic sexuality, outside of male-defined terms like slut.
“Some popular responses have also questioned the wisdom of using the word “slut”, even suggesting that “far from empowering women, attempting to reclaim the word has the opposite effect, simply serving as evidence that women are accepting this label given to them by misogynistic men,” concluding “Women should not protest for the right to be called slut.” Others have noted that the use of the word “slut” raises the hackles of those anxious about the ““pornification” of everything and the pressure on young girls to look like Barbie dolls.”
We hope that the SlutWalks phenomenon will precipitate a discussion in Guyana on the right of women to wear whatever clothes they desire in public versus the right of the rest of society to set its standards of propriety – without blaming the victims of rape.

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Guyana SlutWalk?

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