Lately, there have been many critiques that the SlutWalk Movement does not speak to women of color. Unlike white women, many Black and Latina feminists do not feel that they have the privilege to re-appropriate the word “slut” in a way that doesn’t counteract their resistance to a highly racialized sexuality.
I’m not going to pretend to understand any intersection of racial and sexual identities other than my own–that of a heterosexual, cisgendered, “questionably brown” female. However, these sudden and divisive racial critiques speak to the larger problem within the SlutWalk Movement.
SlutWalk is not about re-appropriating the word “slut” no matter how many feminists claim that that is on the agenda. It is about ending a culture of victim blaming, where rape culture not only facilitates and normalizes rape, but blames victims for their behavior, location, or clothing rather than seeking accountability for the rapist.
For some women, this means dressing “slutty” without being blamed for “asking for it.” For others, it means supporting rape survivors, and ending the myth that only the “perfect victim” –one who is pure, virginal and raped by a rampant criminal that they have ever met–is capable of being raped.
This is something that affects all women. I wish more women would realize this, and frame the protests as a tidal wave against victim blaming and rape culture rather than a playful re-appropriation of the right to be a slut.
