The SlutWalk protest movement of young women in scanty clothing is coming to a town near you, writes ANTHEA McTEIRNAN
CALL ME old-fashioned, but I shall never, ever wear a badge bearing the slogan “I Love Sluts”.
The SlutWalk movement, with its in-your-face tactics and media-friendly phalanx of young women in scanty clothing, is on the march again.
It’s been almost a year since a Toronto police officer told a university personal security class that to prevent a sexual attack, “women should avoid dressing like sluts”. Becoming the founding father of a global movement was probably not high on Constable Michael Sanguinetti’s personal agenda that day last April. Someone should have warned him how easily the personal can become political.
We are peeved and we will march to let you know how peeved we are, said a sizeable group of Canadian women after their dressing down from the officer. They then ransacked their knicker drawers for lingerie with which to expose their anger.
The Canadians targeted the right weaponry for their fight. Lingerie has always been fundamental to women’s liberation – it’s the foundation garment of feminism, if you like. It might seem quaint now (and a little unrealistic in this era of incombustible gel inserts), but bra-burning has always been at the heart of the feminist mystique.
In actual fact, few bras were harmed in the making of the movement. It seems a pity to extinguish the myth, but the feminist activists who converged on the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City in 1968 were heavily policed and someone had obviously forgotten the matches. Sparks did fly, but only metaphorical ones.
Nevertheless, the media loves a bit of heat.
And SlutWalk is sure providing heat. “It’s my hot body. I do what I want,” was the slogan sported by a young woman on the Boston SlutWalk. You can see where we’re going here. And the media is lapping it up.
With the anniversary of the first SlutWalk looming, the initiative is looking like it has spawned one of the most successful feminist protest movements of the past 20 years. Tonight Dublin gets to play second city to Galway, which gave us Ireland’s first SlutWalk last October, and decide whether to embrace the initiative.
NUI Galway student union equality officer Will O’Brien will be in town to support the initiative. He says that women’s dress should not provoke sexual attacks, name-calling or other negative responses. And there really is no disagreeing with that. No disagreeing at all. It’s the tactics. It’s the word. That’s all.
This taking to the streets business has been done before.
As part of the anti-rape, anti-violence against women movement, I have “reclaimed the night” on a number of occasions in a number of cities. But as someone who is anti-rape and anti-violence against women, reclaiming the word “slut” is just a step too far.
Germaine Greer is not often wrong, but she was misguided to veer off on a tangent when she tackled the SlutWalk issue in the Telegraph. Describing those who decry the protesters' use of the word "slut" as "mind police", Greer preferred to concentrate on etymology rather than actuality.
“Historically, the primary attribute of a ‘slut’ is not promiscuity but dirt. The word denotes a ‘woman of dirty, slovenly or untidy habits or appearance; a foul slattern’,” she wrote.
“The women (and men) who are set to prance the streets of dozens of cities in underwear and fetish gear for weeks to come will be taking liberties. That’s where liberation begins.”
But if it’s about dirt, Germaine, surely the SlutWalkers’ point could be made equally effectively if they sported overalls and wore rubber gloves? Not so attractive a prospect for photo editors, I’ll grant you.
It’s just a post-feminist, post-modernist step too far to pretend that by wearing underwear as outerwear women can march to expose the tyranny of male violence. After all, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga haven’t made a difference, have they?
We know that 90 per cent of rapes are committed by rapists who know their victims. Rape is about power and defilement. Of course you should be able to “do what you like” with your “hot body”. Just don’t pretend you’re actually doing what you like by aping Christina Aguilera.
SlutWalks are coming to a town near you. If they transform from lively, energetic, inspiring, scantily clad protests to lively, energetic, inspiring, protests that include women of all ages, races and abilities, they will have succeeded.
Less Agent Provocateur more agents provocateurs. Now we’re talking.
The Irish Feminist Network hosts a meeting entitled Should there be a Dublin SlutWalk in 2012? tonight at 7pm in Cassidy’s, O’Connell St, Dublin 1.