Slutwalk, but not Hookerwalk

I have debated -with myself, anyway - whether I should comment on this. I had a brief discussion with a client about it; she was a university student but more importantly a client, so I kept the discussion to a minimum. I think I could probably make several posts out of this issue, and I may expand on some of the thoughts in it later. I don’t think this is really a right / wrong issue. We’ll see where it goes. I don’t want to be taken out of context, or to misstate my position.

I have read enough posts on other people’s blogs and comments on other issues to know that virtually anything can be taken out of context. That was my initial reaction to this. The police officer who made the comments was speaking at a Canadian university forum on personal safety. He is definitely an idiot for making the comment, and in full, the comment was “You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here,” the officer said, “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this, however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” (Toronto Star). However, it is worth noting that there is no transcript of the forum, and there is no additional context to the statement. Perhaps, in the full context of the forum it may have been appropriate. But I didn’t think so.

I admit that I then thought something along the lines of, “If I left my car door unlocked and the keys in the ignition, it wouldn’t be my fault if my car got stolen but I would still be an idiot.” Then I realized that was a stupid analogy. I think that may have been what the police officer was trying to say - that prevention is a good idea - but he didn’t say it like that and it is wrong headed at best.

Since then, the statement has been handed around the internet, getting taken more and more out of context and more and more misquoted. It had morphed into “women are asking to be raped if they dress like sluts”. Actually, that is also not true - I haven’t read that version anywhere. But that is not what was said; nor was it what was intended. But that is what the gist of the statement has been reimagined to be.

Moving away from that, however, gets to a more important issue. Should women expect to wear whatever they want and feel safe? Yes, of course. That is not the issue. Should men be taught not to rape? Yes, and I think they already are. That is also not the issue. What I think is missed is that the issue is that the Slutwalks have virtually no relevance or impact. Do they create discussion? Sure - I am discussing it now. Lots of blog posts, lots of letters to editors. But what do they actually accomplish? Not much.

What do I mean by that? Well, one police officer who makes a stupid statement that he acknowledges he wasn’t supposed to make does not indicate a societal problem. Protesting that has no effect, as he had been reprimanded even before the story broke. Next, all police who are properly trained will tell you that how a person dresses has no effect on sexual assault. Serial predators may target specific people, based in part on the way they dress, but changing the way you dress won’t have any effect on a serial predator. In the overwhelming majority of sexual assault cases, the victim is known to the criminal and the criminal is usually a family member. Police know this, and they know that a victim’s attire is largely irrelevant. So protesting this won't change any police awareness or training either.

Next, I think it is kind of unintentionally ironic that the women who participate are making objects of them selves. Part of the protest is certainly designed, and I support, to make women less objectified. The unintended effect is that when they dress like mock sluts, they get press coverage, which loves to print or broadcast images of young women in their underwear. Effectively, the issue gets lost in the colour. A better protest would be to dress like mock sluts at their work. Simply look at some other protests that attract the same number of participants; how many of them made top of the news / front page headlines / multiple blog posts?

Important here is the term mock sluts. Real prostitutes - street prostitutes - are at risk. They do not dress like the women in these slutwalks. And it would be naive to think that these women are at risk because of the way they dress, but how they dress is part of their lifestyle and effectively part of their advertising. Because our current society does not value these women, how they dress does increase the risk that they will be victimized, at least compared to the general population. I suspect that most of the women who participate in Slutwalks not only have never met any real Sluts, they would not want to associate with any of them.

So what is my point, my position? I think that people who are participating in the Slutwalks are making themselves feel important. I don’t think that they are having any actual effect on anything. I think they are misguided; or maybe just a reflection of what passes for activism these days. It requires no real effort to dress up in a costume for an afternoon and go for a walk with friends - about as much effort as it takes to change your status in facebook to support a cause, or to wear a bracelet for a day. I think that is that is what really bothers me about the slutwalks.