Why I won’t call myself a “slut”
THE WORD "slut" is reserved for women only and is used by both sexes to insult, shame and put women down. According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, a slut is: "A promiscuous woman: especially a prostitute."
The word "promiscuous" is a loaded word, too, and is used mostly to describe women. Women who have numerous sexual partners (if that can even be defined) are considered sluts.
That, of course, is sexist bullshit. Prostitutes are sex workers, and have many sexual partners because it's a requirement of the job. The more sex they engage in, the more money they make. Women who work for escort services actually have fewer sexual encounters and make more money.
When women are raped, the idea of promiscuity is introduced to attack their character and credibility. What the woman was wearing is also factored in. It goes like this: "She asked for it [rape] because she was dressed like a slut." What is dressing like a slut? It's actually changed as fashion trends come and go, but usually it means tight clothing with skin showing. The phrase "scantily clad" is another way to describe it.
Prostitutes typically wear tight clothing that reveals their body because that is what they sell. The person who "buys" them wants to see what they're getting. And current fashion trends have been heavily influenced by what prostitutes and strippers wear.
Among the most prevalent rape myths is that the way a woman dresses "caused" the man to rape her--but what women wear has nothing to do with the causes of rape. Women in countries that wear loose clothing, or the hijab and the burqa--essentially covering them from head to toe--are raped and sexually assaulted, too. Rape is about power and domination, not dress.
The backlash against women has resulted in a pervasive and accepted raunch culture that promotes the idea that the less women wear, and the more flesh they flaunt is a measure of how empowered they are. It also sanitizes and glamorizes prostitution.
This is wrong. I'm sick of seeing images in the media of women practically naked standing next to men who are fully clothed. Or women who wear T-shirts that say "Bitch" or "Ho" or "Bitchin' Bod!"
This is liberation? C'mon! Don't get me wrong--women should be able to wear any clothing they want, but the choices they make take place in and are shaped by a sexist society that commodifies and degrades women's bodies and sexuality.
Today's nascent women's movement rejects the "all intercourse is rape" theory of feminist theorists Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin and rejects the idea that men should not participate in the fight for women's liberation--a welcome and positive development. But it has a mix of contradictory ideas. It embraces ideas of raunch culture that demean women alongside progressive ideas about the root of and solution to women's oppression and the need for an all-inclusive fightback without apology.
On the demonstrations, some protesters dress like prostitutes and carry signs that say "I'm a Slut," "Slut Pride," "Sluts Say Yes" and "Slut=Dignity." This reinforces raunch culture--the idea that women calling themselves sluts or being a slut is somehow sexually liberating.
To point this out isn't to deny or dismiss other points of view or the ideas people on the marches have, most importantly wanting to protest victim-blaming and violence against women. But socialists shouldn't ignore how the toxic ideas of raunch culture have informed a section of this new movement.
Women are not sluts, and the word should have nothing to do with a woman's sexuality nor a place in a movement for women's equality. Women don't have to reclaim words that are used to oppress and degrade them. In fact, let's erase them from our vocabulary like the words used to oppress and degrade Blacks, gays and others in society.
To name a demonstration that wants to end rape and supports women's equality a SlutWalk is mistaken. Socialists need to participate in these demonstrations and challenge raunch culture ideas. I know it's too late, but I have a suggestion to instead call the demonstrations: "Respect Women: Don't Rape Them Walk."
Helen Redmond, Chicago
