Slut Walk sucks

Tuesday May 24, 2011

Suzy Dean argues that the organisers of Slut Walk are missing the point. Feminism has more important issues to tackle than a point of view about rape that no-one agrees with anyway.

More backward even than the opinion of Michael Sanguinette – the Toronto police officer said that women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised – is surely the founding of Slut Walk. This is a protest group established to point out that blaming the victims rather than perpetrators of rape is wrong, and to reclaim the word ‘slut’ while they’re about it.

There is little to criticise about the idea that no matter what a woman is wearing, rape is the fault of the perpetrator rather than the victim. But the decision to set up Slut Walk to make this point comes at a time when police have never taken rape so seriously.
One of the Toronto police service priorities for 2009-2011 has been to focus on violence against women, with a key objective to increase the number of sexual assaults reported to police.

Furthermore, as long ago as 1989 the Toronto Police Service decided to establish the Sex Crimes Unit, rather than depend upon separate divisions to handle sexual crimes against women, including a Sexual Assault Squad and a Special Victims Section.
Elsewhere in the western world, one of the most powerful men in Europe, Dominique Strauss-Khan, the former IMF chief, has been formally charged with trying to rape a hotel maid, demonstrating that even the greatest power and wealth in today’s society will not get you out of a sex crime.

And rightly so.

Slut Walk is a caricature of the demonstration seen in the 1960s when women fought to overcome discrimination and sexist power structures. Slut Walk has seized upon the stupid remark of one man as ‘proof’ that there is still discrimination towards women within the police when the facts tells us otherwise. In truth, few western women now feel that they are treated differently from men in any public space or whilst using public services.

Women today do face challenges that feminists could take up. Most women, for example, still have to choose between a career and raising a family because of the extortionate price of childcare. Few things are so damaging to the role of women in society; it means that those who take a break from work miss out on the top jobs, the better pay and the satisfaction of playing a role in public life.

Yet rather than tackle a difficult subject like the provision of cheap childcare – a cause that would take a lot of organising, lobbying and most importantly, winning a public debate – all Slut Walk has done is start a rehearsed discussion about how a woman should dress. This is a non-argument. Unsurprisingly, not a single commentator has argued that women deserve to be raped if they dress provocatively.

Slut Walk is the chick-lit of feminism. No real demands are being made by the organisers. Instead, a churlish call to ‘reclaim the word slut’ is the momentum behind the group which leaves those of us who are genuinely trying to campaign and fight for more equality and higher living standards far from engaged.

Slut Walk is little more than an excuse for people to dress up and party whilst showing how right-on they are. Rather than superficially reacting to the comments of one policeman, the founders and supporters of Slut Walk could focus on today’s battle grounds for equality, one which betters the lot of women materially.

Suzy Dean is a writer and journalist