This past Saturday, October 1st, Slutwalk came to New York City, and I was there with my camera to record scene at the march. Please feel free to share it far and wide!*
For me, one of the truly frustrating things about coverage of SlutWalks all over the world has been the media’s focus on the most elaborately undressed and risque marchers, leading people to believe the events are solely about demanding the right to dress like a slut. I hope this video gives people a sense of the range of participants (gender, orientation, background, race, age) that were there marching, chanting and generally raising some hell. You’ll want to hit pause over and over again to read all the signs!!
Some other writings on SlutWalks: Clothes Are Not My Consent, Six Reasons Why Slut Walk is Awesome, What to Wear to a Slutwalk, and Why I Am Marching. Plus reporting from The Huffington Post, the NY Post (but not loving the ‘hundreds of scantily clad ladies’ line). And a critique of SlutWalks from An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk. And this update: In a great piece written after the march, Sady Doyle compares Slutwalk to Occupy Wall Street. (she’s in the video at 1:27)
A BRIEF PRIMER:
If you’re not familiar with SlutWalk, the SlutwalkNYC organizers have lots of info on their website, but here’s quick intro:
SlutWalk has become a worldwide grassroots movement challenging rape culture, victim-blaming and slut-shaming, and working to end sexual and domestic violence. The name has been controversial, but the mission is a powerful one: to shed the stereotypes and myths of sexual assault, support a better understanding of why sexual assault happens, and put the blame where it belongs–on those who perpetrate it.
SlutWalk started in my fabulous home town of Toronto, where in January 2011 a group of York University college students asked a representative of the Toronto Police Department how keep themselves safe from sexual assault. His response of “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized” galvanized the women into creating SlutWalk in Toronto.
At the time, I’m sure they didn’t realize they were about to unleash a powerful political movement that would spread like wildfire. Marches have been held all over the world, from Delhi to Capetown, Seoul to Mexico City, and in cities all across the US.
SLUTWALK NYC’s MISSION:
No matter who you are
No matter where you work
No matter how you identify
No matter how you flirt
No matter what you wear
No matter who you choose to love
No matter what you said before:NO ONE has the right to touch you without your consent.
*We’d love you to share and embed this video, and if you can, please link back to this blog at virginitymovie.com or to Trixie Films at trixiefilms.com. If you want to do more than embed it, like use it in your own project, please contact us and we’ll figure it out. Thanks for supporting independent feminist media!
9 Comments
Fabulous. So good to see young women out in the streets like we were in the 70′s and 80′s. We fought the same rape culture then, and we had a chant that went “Yes means yes, no means no, whatever we wear, wherever we go,” or something like that.
I actually participated in that last year! Take back the night!
and what does this video show that counter-acts the media hype? it seems all of a piece to me: the dancing girls galore… With a very few earnest interventions -
interestingly though there is a call to stop victim-blaming, I see no counter-call to place accountability on the actual perpetrators. i.e. Rapists, i.e. men.
Sorry Kathy, you’re not black enough to have your criticisms of SlutWalk acknowledged and addressed publicly.
Because the only, single essay criticizing SlutWalk that’s worth linking to is the one written by black women. Everyone else better find some black women willing to air their concerns or STFU.
I am deeply disturbed by the direction that Slutwalks are taking, for it so promoting the sex trade. I am an exited prostituted woman, and I find the backing that being a Slut can be a form of work deeply triggering and insulting to the vast majority of prostituted women and girls either inside the sex trade, or those who have exited it. That is a deeply privileged viewpoint, and exclude the vast majority of the prostituted class from Slutwalk. I prefer to march with Reclaim the Night, for it confront male sexual violence, without the embracing of the imagery and concepts of the sex trade.
@Rebecca: I don’t personally view the Slut Walks as promoting the sex trade so much as it is disputing the idea that ______ makes it okay to rape a woman.
It’s still not okay to rape a woman even if she’s dressed “like a slut”. It’s still not okay to rape a woman even if she is a “slut”. It’s still not okay to rape a woman even if she is a sex worker. It’s still not okay to rape a woman even if she’s flirting with you. It’s still not okay to rape a woman even if she’s ___________.
It’s never okay. If some of the people marching with the Slut Walks embrace a certain manner of dress, that to me, is more about embracing their sexuality than the sex trade. It’s about owning that sexuality – and making it clear that that sexuality does NOT mean they deserve to be raped – the imagery and concepts of the sex trade.
Of course that’s just my opinion. I respect that this imagery or terminology might be triggering to some people. I just don’t think that that connotation was necessarily intentional for everyone involved.
I would also like to mention that there were plenty of women (and men) NOT dressed “provocatively” reminding us all that it really DOESN’T matter what you’re wearing.
I think with some women there is a naivety about how much that Slutwalks are hand-in-glove with the promoters of the sex trade – but many women are consciously going on board with this imagery and language of the sex trade. By re-branding it as sex work, it make the normalisation of male violence in all aspects of the sex trade mostly hidden from the public gaze. It keeps the status quo of the sex trade – and that is to deal with sexual violence in-house, and to make out it not rape or sexual torture just the risk of the job. That it is not viewed as an human rights issue, just a labour issue. In that environment, it becomes easy for managers/pimps to push prostitution indoors and that make the violence even further hidden.
It is very important that imagery of feminist marches is not from the sex trade – or that just excludes the prostituted class. Especially not to have pole-dancing or imagery straight out of sex club – for this more than insulting to the prostituted – it make the statement that the normal violence done to the women inside those clubs will remain invisible.
whut?
something to think about:
http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/sex-tips-from-a-war-zone/
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[...] This short film created by Trixie Films of Virginitymovie.com captures this sentiment. In her words: For me, one of the truly frustrating things about coverage of SlutWalks all over the world has been the media’s focus on the most elaborately undressed and risque marchers, leading people to believe the events are solely about demanding the right to dress like a slut. I hope this video gives people a sense of the range of participants (gender, orientation, background, race, age) that were there marching, chanting and generally raising some hell. You’ll want to hit pause over and over again to read all the signs! [...]
[...] I went to Slut Walk (NYC) followed by Occupy Wall Street on Wednesday. I turned on the TV after arriving home from both events [...]
[...] comes to New York. All those “hundreds of scantily-clad marchers” are shown in this video, plus a good round up of links. Also, plenty of feministy bloggers in the video, skeevy dudes [...]
[...] http://www.virginitymovie.com/2011/10/slutwalknyc-a-video-diary/ [...]
[...] this video was posted, along with a blog which notes, among other things, the frustration felt by many about the way in which the media has [...]