Sigh.

While a tiny part of me would like to commend these women for standing up for their beliefs, I'm afraid that a much bigger part of me just thinks that they're a bunch of tiresome, screeching self-obsessed fruit loops who think they know a lot more about rights than they do about getting a nice dinner on the table.

We were discussing this very story at dinner last night. I agree with you but my Canadian girlfriend was alas only theoretically sympathetic of their opinion.

I know several feminists who took part.

Self promotion and political activism crossing streams so that they can feel good about their saturday afternoon.

So you are of the mind that an atractive sexily dressed woman deserves to get raped because she should be at home cooking any way ?????

It seems to me the classy thing for these women to do would be to ignore the comment and just act and dress how they want to. On the other hand, what do you expect from a bunch of sluts?

Alas alack, if only we were all as equal as we were supposed to be. Perhaps if the word slut had been replaced with Black Man, there would have been more of an outcry...

Hmm...

*Snort*

Just listened to Gail Dines on CBC radio putting her point across about the slut walk. Totally agree with her. This is taken from her article in The Guardian.



SlutWalk is not sexual liberation

Women need to take to the streets to condemn violence, but not for the right to be called 'slut'

Gail Dines and Wendy J Murphy
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 May 2011 18.34 BST
Article history



It wasn't long ago that being called a "slut" meant social death. No "nice" boy would take you home to meet his parents and no "good" girl would ever be your friend. At the same time, refusing to submit to sex meant you were a "prude" or "frigid". In short, there was no right way to be. Things have improved a bit in that young women are more insistent on their right to sexual autonomy, but sexually active women remain vulnerable to harsh social judgments even as the mass media celebrate and encourage such behaviour. And research shows that the label "slut" still has long-term negative consequences, especially for younger girls.

Nevertheless, a group of activists organised an event called SlutWalk, that took place on Saturday in Boston. It followed on the heels of a similar event in Toronto earlier this month, where women rallied in response to a comment made by a representative of the police that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised".

To be sure, such a comment from law enforcement is highly offensive in suggesting that some victims of rape are responsible for the criminal acts of their attackers. Rather than admonishing women to dress a certain way, police should be warning potential offenders that they should "avoid assaulting women in order not to go to prison".

The fact that more than 2,000 turned out to march around Boston Common suggests that women are, indeed, hungry for sexual autonomy. But something else was at work here: many of the banners protested the ubiquity of sexual violence in the lives of women. Signs made by protesters showed that women are angry with being blamed for male violence and fed up with the failure of the culture to hold men accountable. Clearly the theme of the SlutWalk has struck a nerve, with similar events being planned around the world, including one in London in June.

The organisers claim that celebrating the word "slut", and promoting sluttishness in general, will help women achieve full autonomy over their sexuality. But the focus on "reclaiming" the word slut fails to address the real issue. The term slut 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.

Advocates would be better off exposing the myriad ways in which the law and the culture enable myths about all types of women – sexually active or "chaste" alike. These myths facilitate sexual violence by undermining women's credibility when they report sex crimes. Whether we blame victims by calling them "sluts" (who thus asked to be raped), or by calling them "frigid" (who thus secretly want to be overpowered), the problem is that we're blaming them for their own victimisation no matter what they do. Encouraging women to be even more "sluttish" will not change this ugly reality.

As teachers who travel around the country speaking about sexual violence, pornography and feminism, we hear stories from women students who feel intense pressure to be sexually available "on demand". These students have grown up in a culture in which hypersexualized images of young women are commonplace and where hardcore porn is the major form of sex education for young men. They have been told over and over that in order to be valued in such a culture, they must look and act like sluts, while not being labeled slut because the label has dire consequences including being blamed for rape, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-mutilation.

Women need to find ways to create their own authentic sexuality, outside of male-defined terms like slut. The recent TubeCrush phenomenon, where young women take pictures of men they find attractive on the London tube and post them to a website, illustrates how easily women copy dominant societal norms of sexual objectification rather than exploring something new and creativeAnd it's telling that while these pictures are themselves innocent and largely free of sexual innuendo, one can only imagine the sexually aggressive language that would accompany a site dedicated to secret photos of women.

While the organisers of the SlutWalk might think that proudly calling themselves "sluts" is a way to empower women, they are in fact making life harder for girls who are trying to navigate their way through the tricky terrain of adolescence.

Women need to take to the streets – but not for the right to be called "slut". Women should be fighting for liberation from culturally imposed myths about their sexuality that encourage gendered violence. Our daughters – and our sons – have the right to live in a world that celebrates equally women's sexual freedom and bodily integrity.

@GreenTea I listened to that too and concurred -I agree that women should have the right to dress as they want - but do not see how the word SLUT can be reclaimed as a positive descriptive!

The long cool sultry lady wearing a short tight mini dress and very transparent top sat at the bar eyeing me up, was a slut.......

Positive enough

She wore a transparent top over a dress? That seems unduly complicated.

Yes very flimsy and sexy, obviously beyond your powers of imagination and fantasy

It sounds disorganized rather than sexy. It's difficult to see how a dress could be enhanced by a second layer, however flimsy, and a transparent top through which one could peek at some kind of floral frock doesn't seem to deployed as efficiently as possible. Puts me in mind of something the cleaning lady might throw over her dress.

Beyond that, I'm finding it difficult to put together the idea of someone being sultry, sweat beading on upper lip and all, with being cool at the same time.

Was this a tranny?

A slutty Tranny.?..