You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here,” he reportedly told them. “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.
I hate the word slut it’s just a continuum of the repertoire of sexist words flung daily at women. Neither am I supportive of reclaiming oppressive language. I have thought long and hard about this (and do have much sympathy with Cath Elliott on this).
But on this occasion I totally support Slutwalk. Why? Because the political message and meaning behind Slutwalk exposes the hypocrisies, contradictions and double standards women face. Taking the word “slut” by politicising the words of PC Sanguinetti.
Along with the message that if a woman dresses like a slut don’t be surprised if she gets raped and furthermore …. don’t expect any support from the cops or the courts. Simply, it’s your own fault… Blaming the victim is a favourite in this society it’s also easy as it takes away issues of accountability nor responsibility of the oppressor rather the spotlight and onus is on the oppressed. Always blame the powerless. Neat trick and it works unfortunately.
I saw, briefly, a discussion on Channel 4 News between 2 women, one was a journalist and the other organiser for Slutwalk. The journalist (I can’t recall her name) was wrong when she said that the police officer who originally made the remarks was a kind of one off. He’s not, the views espoused by Michael Sanguinetti is prevalent in this society. They shouldn’t be but they are. Women who have been sexually assaulted or raped are held to account over what they were wearing whether high heels, short skirts, thongs….and also her sexual history will re-surafce with the…..well, she asked for it! I always hoped that these ignorant and oppressive ideas would die out, disappear into the ether, banished into the dustbin of sexist myths… But no, these myths are as strong as ever. Women’s bodies are objectified and commodified under patriarchal capitalism. Women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
It’s not about how a woman dresses, behaves or condemning her by putting her sexual history under the miscroscope. It’s about power and control. It’s about only 6.1% of rape cases end in conviction, it’s about destroying the misogynistic myths that victimise and blame the woman, it’s about 1 in 4 women in the UK will experience an act of domestic violence at some point in her lifetime, it’s about the uphill struggle women encounter when they have been raped from the police to the judiciary along with the myths that exist to condemn rape victims/survivors.
That’s the realities of rape not how a woman dresses and that’s why I, as a Socialist feminist, will be there on Saturday 11 June from Trafalgar Square, 1pm as part of Slutwalk. Seems as well Slutwalk has proliferated globally.
Wherever we go, however we dress, yes means yes and no means no!
I think the police officer was describing an total realist attitude, in that men’s brains don’t function above waist level. Dress how you like ? erm it doesn’t apply to men does it, in fact any male suggesting exposure is very sternly punished in law a lot more than an female would, all sorts of laws hammer it home men CANNOT expose part of themselves as women might.
God forbid they start ! they can’t dress down to the effect their norty bits are on virtual open display. Adding, of COURSE I don’t agree rape is any excuse, but showing breasts etc and undergarments specifically to tantalise the males is an industry, and one that women take an active part in. I think they need to understand to some males this is going to be misunderstood.
The line between posing and provocative, fashions, men don’t always see. provoke the lower male instincts ? Even women from the Mothers Union have told their female pop star icons to tone it down, for their children’s sake, and the law will back scantily clad women from so doing on TV/music vids. So it looks like the women feel some of it is going too far… they are sexualising their own female kids.
Hi MM I find your comment interesting, but i think it is patronising to men, there is too much made of our instincts, we are meant to be higher than the animal kingdom, we can travel to the moon,we can save peoples lives via very delicate surgery but we cannot control our sex drive ?
I agree that little girls should be wearing age appropriate clothes but once a woman we should be able to wear what we choose. The media have a lot to answer for and fashion is a big factor here. For example there is a lot of fuss about Moslem women wearing headscarves especially in France I come from a working class family and my Nan used to wear her headscarf constantly in the fifties. In hot weather men often go about with their shirts off I think our attitudes all depend on how we have been raised and our enviroment
I think the argument has clouded many issues, it is now centred on women’s rights to wearing what they want or even as little as they want. When the issue was basically about women doing that ‘ask for rape’, obviously no-one asks for that. I was trying probably clumsily because it’s an minefield to make ANY comment without someone putting it under the microscope to find things that aren’t there, or to assume what is there isn’t what is meant, it’s the same for gay issues whatever… you will always say the wrong thing to someone.
Males do see scantily clad women as ‘initiating’ sexual signals, that interpretation of such imagined signals is invariably the problem, most women I think agree on this, men do not always understand the ‘signal’ thing. I think it is taken as fact by most women. I think it is accepting the fact many men see things that way, but they do see women with a lot on show, as exposing things for them to admire/whatever. Obviously most women are not dressing as they do for that reason, or maybe some do, it’s difficult..
Personally I would be embarrassed if women came past me wearing very little, I would be called old-fashioned. But that was the way I was brought up, probably not to respect women who decided to show most of their body to the world. It was about modesty and respect, and the fact wearing provocative clothes may offend some people too. It’s not a criticism or an attack as such, I’ve no doubt some would still see it that way..
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