Chelsea Cleary, Staff Writer
“Sluts” have been making a prominent appearance across North America in the controversial protest “Slutwalk.” The participants of “Slutwalk” dress up in skimpy clothes and high heels to mimic the quintessential “slutty” look. These “sluts” then walk around the town with signs to bring attention to the discrimination female rape victims are subjected to during the investigations of rape cases. Many people hold the notion that because a woman dresses in a certain way that she is willingly placing herself in a position to be raped. This is the attitude that punishes the victim because she is the focus of the blame when that blame ought to be directed at the attacker.
As a feminist and a human rights activist, I am thrilled that these walks are occurring throughout the nation. It is time that we end the “only sluts are raped” stereotype. This aggression towards women is a worldwide problem and Oneonta is not immune. Many people may have forgotten about the two female students who were attacked last spring, but I have not. I think of them often on night walks around town, on campus or on the cow path behind Golding Hall and wonder if I should be also afraid because those attackers (or someone just like them) may still be around. In today’s world, as a woman, I have to be apprehensive about being out at night because I may have an encounter with an attacker. I cringe when I think of that possible reality, especially on my walks home from the bars after nights out with friends. I know the brutal reality is that if I were attacked I would have my claim judged and my questioning based on the shirt and pants I was wearing that day.
It’s words like “slut” that foster this attitude towards women. What do you think when you see girls on Main Street at 11 p.m. on their way to the bars? The popular thought is more often than not; “Wow, what a slut.” What do you often hear people say about the actions of a girl they dislike? Once again the popular response is; “Wow, what a slut.” The woman who we label as a “slut” is a woman who we dislike. The specific reason of why we dislike that woman is founded on her appearance and our dislike of that appearance. So what are we really saying to a rape victim when we tell her, “If you didn’t dress like a slut then you would not have been attacked?” We are telling her that her attack was the natural outcome of wearing her style of clothing. Think on the logic of that explanation for a moment. Did you come across something that seemed a little off?
When did clothes gain the ability to cause a crime? When was the last time that the report of a murder mentioned that the victim’s death was partly caused by the shirt he or she had on? You would be hard pressed to come up with an example of this. So why is it that we use the appearance of the rape victim as a way to justify her attack? Appearance seems to be the cause of rape when we attach the word “slut” to it. Let me put forth the fact that young women wearing these “revealing” outfits are not the only ones who are rape victims. Children, the elderly, the disabled, the mentally challenged and able-bodied men are also rape victims. Was it because their breasts were showing that they were raped?
Every time the word “slut” is used to label a woman, we reaffirm that the individual is responsible for her attack because of the way she looked. “Slut” does not imply that the woman being labeled as such verbally, physically or otherwise interacted with her attacker. “Slut” implies that the attack was caused because the attacker was provoked by her appearance. So it wasn’t because the victim asked her attacker to sexually engage her that she was raped. It wasn’t because she deceivingly touched her attacker in a way that falsely signaled that she welcomed the attacker’s affection, it was because she just happened to look a certain way that the attacker decided to attack her.
This is the attitude that Slutwalk is trying to bring attention to. No woman should ever be attacked because of the clothing she chose to wear nor should that ever be an excuse to explain an attack. Do not call women “sluts,” as engaging in that labeling process, you are by association allowing this kind of violence towards women to go unexcused. Do not come to the aid of the rapists and do not allow your fellow woman to be subjected to this kind of discrimination. If you don’t, then who will? Who else will go unpunished for their attack?
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