How Should Your Daughter Go About Reappropriating The Word ‘Slut’ ?
SlutWalk is coming to New York City soon and generational differences between feminists are making its arrival a contentious one. Self-identified feminists of both genders will soon to take the streets in protest of a notorious comment from a Canadian police officer. He told a group of young college women that if they wanted to avoid sexual assault, they should avoid dressing like “sluts.” In response to the blatantly misogynistic comment, men and women have marched in over 70 cities, often times dressed in very little: bras, underwear, corsets, etc.
Author and feminist Rebecca Traister took to the pages The New York Times Magazine to express concern for how young women are reinterpreting the term with skimpy outfits and lots of skin. Traister observes that young women are trying to reclaim the word by obliterating by openly embracing it — hoping to obliterate the deeply-rooted negative connotation. But by doing so through an expression of sexually-suggestive clothing, young women are improperly framing their message:
I understand that SlutWalkers want to drain the s-word of its misogynistic venom and correct the idea it conveys: that a woman who takes a variety of sexual partners or who presents herself in an alluring way is somehow morally bankrupt and asking to be hit on, assaulted or raped…
To object to these ugly characterizations is right and righteous. But to do so while dressed in what look like sexy stewardess Halloween costumes seems less like victory than capitulation (linguistic and sartorial) to what society already expects of its young women. Scantily clad marching seems weirdly blind to the race, class and body-image issues that usually (rightly) obsess young feminists and seems inhospitable to scads of women who, for various reasons, might not feel it logical or comfortable to express their revulsion at victim-blaming by donning bustiers. So while the mission of SlutWalks is crucial, the package is confusing and leaves young feminists open to the very kinds of attacks they are battling.
Traister’s points are valid and rightly observed, but not all feminists who participate in SlutWalk are required to wear such garb. Men and women are welcome to attend in whatever suits them — and while SlutWalkers who attend in simple jeans and a t-shirt are often times not snapped by the press — the larger presence of all people protesting the term no matter how they’re dressed is the intended message. Contrary to popular opinion, women are sexually assault when wearing virtually anything; rape has no dress code. Sadly, those participators who do choose to wear very little will naturally be the ones you’ll see being interviewed on TV and captured in newspapers, and parents should be mindful of that when wondering to themselves when feminism went so astray.
But when looking across the dinner table at your own daughter considering how exactly she’ll battle the word, if at all, consider that all this hoopla about nudity and the “morality” of scantily clad women is serving a much bigger purpose: bringing sexual assault, rape, and culpability to the forefront of national discussion. And regardless of if you’d want your own daughter marching up and down the street in a bustier, consider that these men and women who are choosing to do so may ultimately benefit her one day.
