11 Slutwalk, emotion and protest
Kaitlynn Mendes, University of Leicester
Back in April 2011, while listening to a Canadian rock radio station online, I heard the news about a recent ‘SlutWalk’ protest in Toronto which was generating much discussion, disagreement and debate, initially in Canada, but eventually across the globe. SlutWalk was a protest in which thousands of women, men and some children, took to the street to challenge the ways victims (particularly women), were routinely blamed and ‘slut-shamed’ after being sexually assaulted – the idea being that they ‘provoked’ assault by dressing or acting like ‘sluts.’ As an expert in the ways feminist movements and activists have been represented in the media (Mendes 2011), I was enraged by the way this movement was being reported on, ridiculed and dismissed, initially by this group of mostly male Toronto DJ’s, but consistently by other media commentators, pundits and journalists.
In response, I began to follow and study this grassroots movement as it developed. Just weeks after the first SlutWalk exploded in Toronto, other walks were being organised in other Canadian cities, before moving south to the US, Central and South America, and then across the Atlantic to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australasia and Asia. Although there have been a number of other anti-rape movements such as Reclaim the Night, which have been in existence for decades, something about SlutWalk resonated with tens of thousands of people, many of whom were sexual assault survivors, but many others who were simply sick of the ways women’s bodies, actions, clothing and appearance were policed, and used as excuses to shame, blame and abuse them.
Not only did SlutWalk generate news articles, columns, features and letters to the editor, it sparked a flurry of blog posts, particularly in the thriving feminist blogosphere. And what was clear about SlutWalk, is that like other protests which capitalise on anger and outrage (Jasper 1997), SlutWalk was a movement which generated emotion. Whether you supported it or opposed it, news articles and blog posts were filled with emotion. For example, a number of commentators noted the ways the movement was naïve, perpetuated rather than challenged the patriarchy, and was generally misguided. Others focused on the ways SlutWalk participants had no clear sense of how the movement challenged the status quo. As one of the movement’s fiercest critics, Meghan Murphy parodied: ‘We love sex and we’re sluts! Take that, patriarchy! We wear lingerie to challenge, um…We’re not sure!
Several sex workers used blogs to share:
‘[H]ow important SlutWalk is to me – particularly as a sex worker, whose chances of being assaulted are much higher, with little to no protection from the state because of my legal invisibility. In fact, the only thing the state is likely to do for me is punitive. For me, SlutWalk is so much more than just a protest against sexual assault and victim blaming – it’s about reco