Slutwalk: is it really the way for woman to raise awareness about rape?

Published on Thursday 2 June 2011 19:28

IT ALL started with a comment made by one man to ten students in Toronto. In January a police officer called Michael Sanguinetti gave a talk on personal safety to a group of students on a university campus. "I've been told I'm not supposed to say this," he said. "However, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised."

It wasn't a particularly unusual sentiment. The idea that women are somehow to blame for a sexual assault or rape because of the length of their skirt, the way they behave, or how much they've had to drink has (unfortunately) been around for as long as the word "slut", which dates back to the 15th century. So it's not surprising that Sanguinetti's comments didn't make the news.

But then something surprising did happen. Women in Toronto began posting their anger and frustration on Facebook and Twitter. More and more people, men included, joined in. The police department issued an apology (though Sanguinetti kept his job). But by now, the issue had moved on. A march was planned by five women to call for an end to victim-blaming and what they branded "slut-shaming": the shaming of women because of their sexual choices. "Because we've had enough" was their simple, incendiary motto. They decided to call it a Slutwalk, with the deliberate aim of agitating and provoking a reaction, and it worked.

They expected 100 people to show up but on 3 April 4,000 people marched through Toronto on the first Slutwalk. Some women (and men) marched in their underwear with the word "slut" marked on their bodies, some wore miniskirts and held placards reading "Believe it or not, my short skirt has nothing to do with you", some wore jeans and T-shirts. And then other countries started to find out about it and "satellite" Slutwalks started springing up all over the place. First came Boston, then Ottowa and Washington DC, then Australia, the Middle East and Europe. A more aggressive, in-your-face answer to the Reclaim the Night marches of the 1970s, fuelled outrage on by social networks, seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. A new global feminism movement was born.

Now, the Slutwalk is sashaying, stomping and striding into Scotland. Tomorrow Glasgow holds its inaugural Slutwalk in George Square, expecting up to 1,000 people. On the same day a Slutwalk will take place in Cardiff, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Sao Paolo, and Canberra. On 10 June the Manchester Slutwalk will follow, then London on 11 June and Edinburgh on 18 June, when more than 700 people will march down the Royal Mile.

Claire Askew, a poet and teacher in the capital, will be attending the Edinburgh Slutwalk. "For me, the goal is to raise awareness about rape and sexual assault and our culture of victim-shaming," she says, referring to Scotland's rate of rape conviction, one of the lowest in Western Europe, at less than 3 per cent of reported cases. "Things like what the victim was wearing, how she was behaving beforehand – these are factors taken into account at rape trials. What Slutwalk aims to say is that's not acceptable. A woman never deserves to be attacked."

Why does she think so many people have been mobilised by this particular issue? "It has surprised me," she says. "But I think it's the straw that broke the camel's back."

Heather Jarvis, a student and activist and one of the Slutwalk founders in Toronto, agrees. "People are really fed up," she tells me. "I was livid when I read that original comment and then frustrated because I didn't know what to do. I think everyone can relate to having a derogatory word thrown at them that was intended to shame them. And I hope now we've got people's attention that Slutwalk is re-energising for feminism."

It's certainly got feminists talking. Many have embraced the concept. Germaine Greer wrote in a national newspaper that "if they're to be liberated, women have to demand the right to be dirty", referring to the original 15th-century meaning of the word "slut" to denote a "dirty" or "slovenly" woman, before it became associated with sexual promiscuity. Others have felt Slutwalk is damaging to both feminism and the movement to end violence against women. The novelist Louise Bagshawe argued on a recent Newsnight debate that women calling themselves "sluts" lionises promiscuous behaviour by trying to rebrand it as feminist when in fact it is harmful to them.

Jenny Kemp, 35, is a co-ordinator for Zero Tolerance, a Scottish charity working to tackle the causes of men's violence against women. She is a feminist and precisely the sort of person you'd expect to be going on the Glasgow and Edinburgh Slutwalks. But she feels the movement is misguided and won't be attending. "We share a lot of common ground," she says, "but I think the message is wrong. It's prone to distortion and for the people who are ready to victim-blame it will play right into their hands. I can just imagine the average person seeing women calling for the right to be called sluts and saying, 'Well, they're asking for it.' They won't get the point. It will do more harm than good." For Jarvis, who came up with the concept with her co-founders, the shock and power of such a challenging word is precisely the point. One of the principles, though by no means the only one, behind Slutwalk is to reclaim the word "slut".

"It was a very clear and active decision," she says. "We wanted to be direct and sometimes you have to take a different tactic to get people to sit up and look around them. And we view language as something that can be fluid. The idea that words are too far gone to be reclaimed is just giving up."

Still, many argue that a word with such a long, pejorative history can never be reclaimed and, more to the point, why would we want to. For Kemp, the issue of whether a word such as "slut" – like "nigger" and "queer" before it – can be reclaimed is secondary. The problem with Slutwalk is its focus on women's sexual behaviour. "Why didn't the people in Toronto focus on the perpetrators and say let's have a rally against rapists?" she asks. "The feminist movement has worked for years to say don't ask why women don't leave their abusive partners. Ask why men abuse women. Don't ask why women are in prostitution. Ask why men use prostitutes. Don't ask why men women dress like they do. Ask why men rape."

For Jarvis and the other Slutwalk organisers I speak to, what they're calling for – an end to violence and victim-blaming – isn't exactly new. And neither is the use of the word "slut". The riot grrl feminist punk movement of the 1990s was long ago trying to reclaim it, when Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill took to the stage with "slut" scrawled across her bare midriff.

As the (male) organiser of the Edinburgh Slutwalk points out, it's all about personal choice. "We want to represent all women," says Sunil Bellur, a student at Edinburgh College of Art who was inspired to join the movement by his "strong feminist" girlfriend. He believes it's crucial that men come on board, and asks that if some women want to take back a name that has been used against them, "who are we to tell them what words they should use to describe themselves?"

He adds: "If you don't agree with that aspect, don't walk for it. Walk for the cause instead. Walk to end victim-shaming."

What's key about this feminist movement is that it's been organised by young people. Jarvis and her co-founders are students, as are Bellur and his girlfriend. One of the Cardiff organisers is 20, and one of the London organisers is 17. Some older feminists have pointed out that this is a new generation of women and their voices should be heard.

"It's exciting to see young, angry women organising," says Kemp. "Maybe Reclaim the Night seems a bit boring and dated and 70s to women now who probably think, 'Well, I go out whenever I want to every weekend anyway.' Maybe this issue seems more relevant to them."

Slutwalk was never envisaged to be the global phenomenon it has become. Yet it speaks to people all over the world. In Toronto, Jarvis is blown away by the snowballing effect. Less than six months on from the first rally more than 70 satellite Slutwalks have signed up around the world. On the day I speak to her, women in Uganda and Tehran have been in touch. She still can't believe that what started with her "livid" response to a comment by an authority figure has ended with thousands marching all over the world. The numbers tell their own story.

"Not everyone needs to take on the word," says Jarvis. "It's about offering a choice. And there are women out there, survivors of sexual assault, who say this has helped them. There are women who love this. There are people all over the world who want and need this."

In numbers

Every 10 minutes

a domestic violence incident is recorded in Scotland, with 53,681 incidents reported in 2008-9.

26%

of Scots surveyed in 2007 thought that a woman bore some responsibility for being raped if she wore revealing clothing.

84%

of recorded domestic abuse incidents were violence against a woman committed by a man in 2007-8.

3.7%

The Scottish conviction rate where a rape was reported to the police.

1 in 5

women in Scotland will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

1 in 5

young men believed that women often 'provoke violence' in a 2005 study.