Slutwalks take over Europe

If you thought that it was just a colorful social phenomenon meant to blow over in a couple of weeks,it’s  now time to change your mind: the Slutwalk protest is going beyond any expectations.

The movement founded in Canada at the beginning of the year hasn’t stopped growing and is now literally taking over the world: from Toronto to Boston, from Sidney to Edimburgh, from London to New Delhi, everybody’s walking the “Slutwalk”.

The first event was organized in Toronto last April by a small group of women after the statement released by a local police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, during a rape prevention seminar at the Osgoode HallLaw School: “Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”. An embarrassing apology for violence that represents a worrisome cultural attitude towards rape that has always been widespread in our society. Since the beginning of time women have always been depicted a symbol of temptation. It was Eve, after all, who offered the apple to Adam and many people still consider a short skirt or a pair of high heels a sort of a modern sin apple men cannot resist.

“Being assaulted isn’t about what you wear; it’s not even about sex; but using a pejorative term to rationalize inexcusable behavior creates an environment in which it’s okay to blame the victim” says the Slutwalk manifesto and as a matter of fact what makes Sanguinetti’s statement even worse,  is the fact that rape is already an under-reported crime . Many victims are often too ashamed to speak out against sexual violence and such a statement could give survivors even less of a reason to go to the Police, for fear that they could be blamed.

Slutwalks have been both praised and criticized. An articulate article by Gail Dines and Wendy J. Murphy appeared on the Guardian last may claiming that “Women need to take to the streets to condemn violence, but not for the right to be called slut” since the term is “so deeply rooted in the patriarchal “madonna/whore” view of women’s sexuality that it is beyond redemption. The word is so saturated with the ideology that female sexual energy deserves punishment that trying to change its meaning is a waste of precious feminist resources”.

The “Slutwalkers”  are actually trying to reclaim the word “slut” in order to remove its derogatory meaning for victim blamers and raise awareness about this widespread , worrisome  cultural attitude towards women. During the march many of them choose to wear the kind of dress that is usually dismissed as “slutty” or “inviting”. But why have all these women chosen to fight a cultural battle that many consider a utopia?

It all comes down to freedom:  to choose what to wear, where to go, what to do, without being threaten and for human being there’s always been only one battle worth fighting:  the one for freedom.