Don't Go There Girlfriend

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/06/slutwalking-policeman-talk-clothing

Poor old Police Officer Michael Sanguinitti. One minute a mild mannered policeman giving a talk about personal safety that he’s probably given 100 times before, the next thing he’s a hate figure for women in provocative clothing all across the other side of the pond.

I have to admit when I first saw this article I was really quite angry – but surprisingly not at Sanguinitti. I was angry at the women in these pictures who claim to speak for women in provocative clothing everywhere. The fact that we called it “provocative” clothing at all is a misnomer in itself as it suggests that provocation is the chief aim of wearing it at all. I had to sit and read the article a couple of times to digest it all and start understanding the cause, and while I am not exactly jumping through hoops that women in fishnets are taking to the street to talk about women’s rights when it comes to rape cases, there are several points to take away from this.

Firstly it’s to not get this cause confused with the reasons why women wear this type of clothing. Getting into that subject opens a whole can of worms and though I may touch upon it, as it is in some ways relevant, it’s important to be aware that women are not going on SlutWalks to complain about men leaning out of white vans, honking on horns or yelling salacious remarks at them. Women are going on SlutWalks because of prevailing attitudes that wearing short skirts and having cleavage on show increases the level of blame that can be ascribed a woman in a rape case.

"You know, I think we're beating around the bush here. I've been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised."

This is what Sanguinitti said.

The thing is that rape doesn’t happen because a girl walks about the house in a small amount of clothing – rape happens because of opportunity. Women could waltz around naked all day if there were robot guards on every street corner to prevent them from being attacked – but there aren’t and consequently women need to be careful and not take unnecessary risks. This doesn’t just apply to women in short skirts, this applies to women everywhere, and a woman alone in a dangerous place, especially at night, is a very likely target for a rape incident, whatever she was wearing.

One of the main problems in rape cases seems to be this confusion in several areas – firstly that small clothing means you are looking for a sexual encounter, secondly that if a sexual encounter were to present itself, a woman in small clothing would be more likely to go along with it. Rape is and always will be non consensual – it’s a demonstration of power and violation over a weaker entity – and the chief reason why it happens is because the weaker entity was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If blame is to be given to a woman over a rape incident then it should be because she was in an area that she knew was dangerous, unchaperoned and vulnerable as a result of actions that she took. Whether this was drinking, or the refusal to get a taxi which would have taken her to own door. And even then – even after taking these factors into account – the chief responsibility for the attack lies with the perpetrator and not with the victim. Reducing the responsibility of the attacker due to a short skirt is surely – as the SlutWalkers have pointed out – a sign that we continue to live in a patriarchal society with laws that are written and then enforced by men.

There’s more to this than meets the eye though.

One of my initial reactions was that I was really surprised that the women themselves were calling these “Slutwalks”. I mean – why? By doing so they were labelling themselves by an extremely derogatory term which is normally thrown at them by men. I didn’t feel that calling themselves sluts they were doing anything at all to help their cause. If anything, they were enforcing the view that the marchers – many of whom have dressed in small clothes to emphasise their point – were sluts, and that in fact all women who wear small clothes are sluts by extension.

As a side note, I’m a staunch advocate of the view that what you wear should not be held as a statement of who you are. Fashions come, fashions go, different shapes of figure require different styles to best emphasise them, and wearing a short skirt doesn’t make you a slut. It’s our behaviour that dictates who we are – not even the things that we say or think – but the things that we do. Politicians the world over perpetrate lies on a daily basis, they make promises that they don’t keep, they tell us that they will fight the triplication of student fees, they say that there are WMDs floating around Arab countries when actually there aren’t. Never judge a leader, a government, a manager, friend, colleague or loved one by the things they say and the promises they make, judge them by the things they do and the actions that they take. My point is – wearing small clothes does not make you a slut. Furthermore, before women can ask for the right for men to stop calling them sluts, they need to change their own gender views and stop calling each other sluts.

I did wonder whether the SlutWalks could really be the beginning of something, but something other than the fight to change opinions about rape. I wonder whether it’s the beginning of women finally taking possession of the word “slut”. If women could stop attacking each other for their sexual attitudes, stop the use terms like “frigid” and “loose”, all of which are words women are just as inclined to use to describe each other as they are to have slung at them in a drunken drawl in a bar on a Friday night.

Then again I do wonder at the efficacy of any campaign where the focus could very easily be mistaken as “I’m going to dress in small clothes and march through the middle of a city so that everyone can see,” and also, “I’m a young women with a sign saying “Sluts say Yes!” Please take my cause seriously!” If the women of the world are going to make a stand about their right to wear what they want without fear of judgement or recrimination, I don’t think this is the best way of doing it. While the majority of women won’t like being associated with something called a slutwalk, I can’t imagine that the men either are going to be focussed enough on the message as much as the choices of apparel some of these girls are wearing.

Sad, really.